3  1822  00208  5165 


WOMEN'S 
WILD  OATS 

ESSAYS  ON  THE  RE-FIXING  OF 
MORAL  STANDARDS 


BY 


C.  GASQUOINE  HARTLEY 

Author  of  "The  Truth  About  Woman,"  "Motherhood 
and  the  Relationships  of  the  Sexes,"  etc. 


"For  her  house  inclineth  unto  death,  and 
lier  paths  unto  the  dead." — PHOV.  ii.  18. 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1930,  by 
FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPAXT 


A II  Rights  Reserved 


To 
MY  HUSBAND  AND  MY  SON 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY        7 

THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS 19 

THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD 52 

THAT  WHICH  is  WANTING 81 

"GIVE,  GIVE!" 113 

IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE? 150 

FORESEEING  EVIL 192 

CONCLUSION 223 

APPENDICES                                        229 


WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

INTRODUCTORY 


WOMAN  S    CARNIVAL 


"To  the  hungry  soul  every  bitter  thing  is  sweet." 
— Prov.  xxvii.  7. 

THE  sudden  collapse  of  the  war  left  us  in 
a  daze.  After  the  years  of  inhuman  strain 
it  was  hard  to  ease  off  tension  to  the  almost 
forgotten  conditions  of  peace.  I  recall  that 
ever  to  be  remembered  day,  November  llth, 
1918 — Victory  Day.  In  the  early  hours  be- 
fore noon  I  was  in  London,  and  my  young  son 
was  with  me.  Everywhere  was  an  atmosphere 
of  anxiety,  an  unusual  stillness.  Men  in  little 
groups  of  two  and  three  stood  here  and  there, 
soldiers  in  larger  numbers  loitered  or  walked 
slowly  along  the  pavements;  girls  and  women 
waited  at  the  doors  of  business  houses  and 
shops,  where  inside  nobody  seemed  attending 
to  the  few  customers.  Everyone  was  waiting; 


8  WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

there  was  an  expectancy  so  great  and  so  stir- 
ring that  ordinary  life  had  stopped.  The  last 
hour  seemed  endless  in  its  slow  passing.  I  do 
not  remember  ever  to  have  experienced  the 
same  anxious  tension,  which  was  felt  so 
strongly  by  us  all  that,  in  a  way  I  cannot  ex- 
plain, we  seemed  to  gain  liberation  from  our- 
selves, and,  losing  individuality,  were  brought 
to  share  a  universal  impulse.  The  colossal  im- 
portance of  that  hour  made  itself  felt. 

Then  at  last  the  peace  guns  sounded.  We 
knew  the  armistice  had  been  signed:  Germany 
had  accepted  the  terms  offered  by  the  Allies. 
The  fear  of  utter  misery  was  lifted:  the  war 
was  over.  The  streets  filled  as  if  by  magic, 
sellers  of  newspapers  appeared,  nobody  knew 
from  where,  and  were  besieged.  As  the  news 
spread,  a  delirium  of  enthusiasm  caught  the 
people.  There  never  was  such  a  day,  and  there 
never  can  be  such  a  day  again.  From  noon 
onwards  in  ever  increasing  numbers  the  streets 
were  thronged  with  people.  Strangers  who 
had  never  set  eyes  on  one  another  before  re- 
joiced together  as  sisters  and  brothers.  Heed- 
less of  rain,  and  mud,  and  slush,  Londoners 
turned  the  city  into  a  carnival  of  joy.  Then 
as  the  hours  advanced  the  fun  grew  wilder. 


9 

People  linked  hands  and  danced,  and — mad- 
dest of  all — indulged  in  wild  "ring  of  roses" 
around  lamp-posts  and  in  the  centers  of  the 
great  thoroughfares.  From  the  Strand  and 
into  the  West  End  and  beyond  was  one  packed 
concourse  of  people,  a  never-ending  stream 
spread  from  pavement  to  pavement  across  the 
way,  in  processions,  in  pairs,  in  groups,  in  taxi- 
cabs,  on  the  top  of  taxi-cabs,  in  and  on  and  all 
over  motor-omnibuses,  hanging  to  the  backs  of 
cabs,  on  great  munition  lorries — everywhere 
clustering  and  hanging  like  swarming  flies. 
There  were  soldiers,  crowds  of  Dominion  boys, 
young  officers  and  privates,  old  men  and  young 
men  from  civil  life,  and  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  women  and  girls  of  every  age  and  rep- 
resentative of  every  class. 

It  was  the  women  that  I  noticed  most:  they 
were  wilder  than  the  men,  making  more  noise, 
cheering,  shouting  and  singing  themselves 
hoarse,  dancing  and  romping  themselves  tired. 
Quite  undisguisedly  the  soldiers  were  led  by 
them.  It  was  Woman's  Carnival  as  well  as 
Victory  Night. 

It  is  very  hard  to  find  words  to  speak  of 
what  I  felt.  The  universal  gladness  was  intox- 
icating, and  yet,  none  the  less,  as  I  watched  and 


10         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

noted,  the  scene  was  a  spectacle  that  for  me  at 
least,  was  shot  strangely  with  apprehension,  al- 
most with  pain,  certainly  with  anger  and  re- 
grets, with  aspects  unaccountably  sad.  I  wit- 
nessed many  incidents  I  am  tempted  to  record, 
but  events  passed  so  quickly,  and  I  do  not  wish 
to  generalize  rashly.  One  thing  I  noticed  was 
the  great  number  of  women  and  girl  smokers. 
The  woman  without  a  cigarette  was  almost  the 
exception.  There  was  no  attempt  at  conceal- 
ment. But  what  impressed  me  was  the  way 
of  holding  and  smoking  the  cigarette  with 
an  awkwardness  that  proclaimed  the  novice. 
Quite  plainly  the  majority  of  these  girls  were 
smoking  not  at  all  because  they  desired  to 
smoke,  but  for  a  lark.  A  little  thing,  you  will 
say,  very  harmless,  and  possibly  you  are  right, 
and  yet  it  is  the  straw  which  reveals  the  direc- 
tion of  the  wind. 

In  all  the  riotous  merriment  there  seemed  to 
lurk  the  urgency  of  unsatisfied  wants.  These 
instabilities  and  shadows  did  not  darken  the 
whole  prospect,  it  may  be  that  they  intensified 
the  pageant;  London  was,  indeed,  very  won- 
derful that  evening.  Yet  all  the  foolish  and 
ugly  incidents,  petty  and  grave  alike,  of  which 
I  could  not  fail  to  be  aware,  came  to  me  with 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

an  effort  of  challenge  as  something  not  to  be 
ignored,  but  steadily  to  be  inquired  into,  as  an 
imperative  call  for  effort  and  courage,  a  spur 
once  again  to  take  up  my  pen  and  write  to 
warn  women. 

My  thoughts  turned  back  over  the  last  long 
four-and-a-half  years — years  of  struggle,  of 
violent  disorders,  anxiety  and  pain.  That  time 
was  finished.  Thanks  to  our  dead!  Honor  to 
our  great  dead!  The  spectacle  before  me  be- 
came wider  and  richer  and  deeper,  more 
charged  with  hope  and  promise  .  .  . 

Bang!  Laughter  and  harsh  screaming  as  a 
rocket  shot  up  starring  the  dark  evening  heav- 
ens with  its  clustering  balls  of  colors.  In 
many  parts  of  the  city,  long  obscured,  lamps 
were  lighted;  row  upon  row  of  little  electric 
globes  of  white  and  red  and  blue  appeared,  and 
the  unaccustomed  blaze  infected  the  revelers. 
It  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  shouting ;  it  was  like 
removing  the  curtain  from  some  great,  long- 
darkened  mirror.  The  fun  grew  boisterous. 
At  this  corner  there  were  cheers  for  the  Prime 
Minister,  at  the  next  for  Foch  and  Haig,  and 
Beatty  and  the  Grand  Fleet,  and  for  France 
and  America.  Numbers  did  not  know  what 
exactly  they  cheered ;  it  did  not  matter,  it  gave 


12         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

an  excuse  for  noise.  Much  noise  was  needed 
to  keep  up  the  revel  and  convince  everyone 
that  everybody  was  happy. 

Unceasingly  the  violent  merry-making  went 
on.  Hoot!  and  an  immense  motor-wagon, 
crowded  with  singing  girls,  blowing  hooters, 
wildly  waving  flags,  and  followed  by  a  trail  of 
taxi-cabs  like  a  gigantic  wobbling  tail,  each  one 
laden  with  ten,  twenty,  and  even  more  soldiers, 
charged  down  a  side  street  and  urged  its  right 
of  way  brutally  through  the  crowd. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  the  whole  spirit  and 
quality  of  the  reveling  was  summarized.  A 
rabble  of  distractions  sought  to  sway  me  hither 
and  thither.  Now,  I  watched  a  company  of 
girls  dancing  with  young  officers  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  a  barrel  organ,  then  a  group  sing- 
ing, and  another  group  playing  some  round 
game  that  I  did  not  know;  now  it  was  some 
Tommies  surrounded  by  a  group  of  screaming 
girls.  In  one  group  a  woman  was  carrying  a 
baby,  and  a  tiny  child  dragged  at  the  hand  of 
another  girl,  crying  drearily,  and  no  one  no- 
ticed. Boys  were  kicking  about  boardings 
that  had  been  torn  from  the  statues  in  Trafal- 
gar Square.  The  noise  became  more  and  more 
deafening. 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

Did  anyone  realize  at  all  the  colossal  impor- 
tance of  that  day?  This  hour  of  supreme 
thanksgiving,  the  most  glorious  of  all  days  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  was  passing  in  a  delir- 
ium of  waste.  For  there  was  no  joy,  only  a 
great  pretense  and  noise. 

In  this  medley  the  sense  of  the  present 
tended  to  disappear.  Victory  Night,  by  some 
fantastic  transformation,  to  me  became  terrible 
with  menace.  All  the  jostling,  excited  people, 
and  especially  the  disheveled  women  and  the 
crowds  of  rioting  girls,  appeared  as  tormented 
puppets,  moving  and  capering,  not  at  all  from 
will  and  desire  of  their  own,  but  agitated  vio- 
lently and  incessantly  by  some  hidden  hand, 
forced  into  playing  parts  they  did  not  want  to 
play,  saying  words  they  had  no  wish  to  speak, 
cutting  antics  for  which  they  had  no  aptitude 
or  liking.  Cruelties  lurked  everywhere,  wait- 
ing in  the  confused  mummery.  Reality  was 
being  left  and  with  it  the  practical  grasp  of 
those  powerful  simplicities  that  alone  can  guide 
life  through  confusion.  I  felt  this  with  sting- 
ing certainty.  Everyone  seemed  playing  a 
part,  goaded  with  the  urgency  of  seeking  an 
escape  from  themselves. 

But  must  life  always  go  on  in  the  same  way? 


14         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Surely  our  great  dead  point  us  through  all 
these  pretenses  into  the  future?  Dead  com- 
pelling hands,  insisting  with  irritable  ges- 
tures that  this  failure  of  life  should  cease,  and 
cease  forever. 

A  thousand  serried  problems  seemed  to  be 
pressing  on  me  at  once.  My  young  son  was 
angry  at  my  sadness,  but  it  was  the  biting  con- 
sciousness of  his  presence  that  ruled  my  mood. 
This  world  was  his  world;  this  England  his 
England;  this  London  was  his  London  and 
that  of  all  children.  It  was  for  them  that  the 
failure  mattered.  So  I  thought,  tormented, 
tortured  with  pain  and  impatience. 

Leaving  the  Strand,  we  turned  down  one  of 
the  narrow  streets  near  to  the  Savoy  Hotel,  I 
forget  which  one  it  was,  and  walked  to  the  Em- 
bankment. We  came  out  not  far  from  Char- 
ing Cross  Bridge  and  looked  down  over  the 
long  sweep  of  the  water.  The  evening  sky  was 
a  dull  gray,  almost  black,  but  the  rain  had 
ceased  to  fall,  and  just  then  above  us  there  was 
a  break  as  if  the  absent  moon  was  working  to 
cut  the  clouds  adrift.  A  kind  of  luminous 
darkness  closed  around  us.  It  was  beautiful. 
The  massed  buildings  rose  a  blurred  outline  be- 
tween the  river  and  the  sky  like  great  beasts 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

crouching  and  ready  to  spring,  while  through 
the  steel-black  circlings  of  the  bridge  row  after 
row  of  lights  sparkled  and  glowed,  and  blurs  of 
color,  amber  to  warm  orange,  splashed  upon 
the  river.  On  the  other  side,  behind  us,  the  big 
hotels  all  were  lighted,  and  the  unaccustomed 
illumination  appeared  to  give  too  full  a  flood 
of  light  to  be  quite  real.  Ever  and  anon  rock- 
ets shot  up  into  the  gray  and  fell  in  burning 
rain,  and  every  color  was  reflected  in  diminish- 
ing shades,  above  in  that  one  luminous  patch 
of  sky,  and  below  in  the  pallid,  rippled  water. 
Yes,  the  scene  was  beautiful,  perfect  as  a 
dream-city  one  could  desire;  all  the  elements 
"composed"  in  the  painter's  sense,  and  in  arro- 
gance of  soul  I  felt  that  the  beautiful  effect  had 
been  arranged  for  me :  that  it  was  like  a  fault- 
less piece  of  scene-painting,  only  there  is  no 
artist  who  could  paint  it. 

I  watched  in  silence  as  my  son  talked  at  my 
side.  Here  there  was  almost  no  noise ;  reports 
of  motors  and  the  harsh  clang  of  shouting 
echoed,  but  in  the  distance.  After  the  crowds 
we  had  left,  the  wide  roadway  appeared  desert- 
ed, and  the  quiet  made  it  easy  for  me  to  urge 
myself  past  my  despair.  One  moment  at  least 
I  had  in  which  I  was  conscious  again  of  a  spirit 


16         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

and  quality  in  life;  the  immense  forces  work- 
ing on  while  the  city  rioted  its  victory.  But 
it  all  goes  so  slowly — not  fast  enough ! 

The  night  became  darker,  the  gray  rift  in  the 
clouds  narrowed  and  closed,  a  few  great  drops 
of  rain  fell  heavily.  Around  us  the  air  blew 
chill,  the  trees,  whose  points  stood  out  jet  black 
among  the  sweeping  line  of  the  still  shrouded 
Embankment  lamps,  murmured  with  innumer- 
able angry  voices  as  the  wind  cut  through 
them,  the  bitter  wind  that  rises  before  rain. 
My  mood  shivered  under  the  loneliness  that 
marks  the  end  of  all  perfect  things. 

Afterwards  we  walked  up  Villiers  Street  to 
the  Strand  Station,  and  witnessed  a  little 
longer  the  riot  of  pretended  joy.  Now,  the 
fun  had  grown  more  boisterous,  or  so  it 
appeared  to  me  in  contrast  with  the  quiet  we 
had  left.  A  seething  mass — women  and  girls 
and  soldiers  linked  arms  in  arms  charged  down 
the  street,  blocking  the  station  entrances, 
shouting,  beating  rattles  and  tins  for  drums, 
making  the  most  deafening  noise.  Must  we  go 
on  past  or  through  them  all?  Yes,  and  it  was 
for  me  a  necessary  lesson,  perhaps,  for  trying 
to  snatch  too  much  for  myself  by  getting  away 


17 

—and  forgetting.    I  had  wanted  to  shirk,  now 
I  was  forced  back  to  attention. 

How  clearly  I  recall  that  crowd!     It  took 
much  time  to  get  our  train,  and,  as  we  waited, 
almost  unconsciously  I  began  to  take  mental 
notes  of  what  I  saw.     Soon  my  interest  was 
fastened.     I  observed  individuals  with  quick- 
ened attention  from  the  very  sharpness  of  my 
disillusionment.     Incidents    burnt   themselves 
into  my  memory,  not  in  themselves  of  great  im- 
portance, but  surely  significant.     I  was  being 
dragged  back  face  to  face  with  many  questions 
difficult  to  solve.     What  impressed  me  sharply 
was  the  unhappy   faces   of   almost   all   those 
wildly  excited  girls.     To  my  fancy  each  one 
was  hiding  from  herself,  and  hiding  also  from 
everyone  else.     One  girl,  in  particular,  I  re- 
member, a  lank  figure,  brightly  dressed  and 
her  head  adorned  by  a  wreathed  Union  Jack, 
whirling  lean  arms  in  an  ecstasy  of  irritability, 
her  shrill  voice  mounting  from  scream  note  to 
scream  note.     A  sickness  of  soul  cried  from 
her  restless  over-taxed  body.     She  was  but  one 
unit  of  a  whole  rowdy  company.     Even  this 
night  was  used  by  them  to  grab  at  something  to 
fool   men — to   smother   God   in   their   hearts. 


18         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Just  a  play ,  a  pretense,  yes,  a  pretense  of 
power,  especially  that;  they  had  no  thought 
beyond  excitement,  and  that  to  me  seemed  only 
the  first  step.  I  could  not  believe  that  the  new 
freedom,  the  new  England  would  be  made  by 
such  women.  Their  make-believe  merriment, 
all  this  riotous  celebrating  of  the  world's  stu- 
pendous Victory — what,  after  all,  was  it? 
And  for  me  the  desolate  answer  "Waste!"  rang 
out  from  the  unceasing  noise. 

"Surely  this  squandering  of  Woman's  gift, 
this  failure  of  herself  must  cease  now  that  peace 
has  come!"  The  cry  broke  wordless  from  me. 
I  understood  the  reality  of  my  fear.  I  knew 
the  peril  to  the  future.  It  is  the  problem  of 
unstable  woman,  clamorous  and  devouring, 
that  cries  aloud  for  solution. 


First  Essay 
THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS 

WHICH  TREATS  OF  WAR  WORKERS,  AND  THE   CHANGES  THAT 
HAVE   COME  IN   WOMEN'S  IDEALS 

"The  turning  away  of  the  simple  shall  slay  them,  and 
the  prosperity  of  fools  shall  destroy  them." — Prov.  1.  32. 


I  HAVE  lying  upon  my  study  table,  on  the 
chairs  and  even  spreading  over  upon  the  floor, 
a  heaped-up  litter  of  documents.  Board  of 
Trade  inquiries,  Government  reports,  news- 
paper cuttings,  recent  hooks,  articles  from  the 
reviews  and  popular  magazines — all  dealing, 
in  one  manner  or  another,  with  women's  labor 
and  their  position  as  workers  in  the  immediate 
past  and  in  the  future.  Woman,  eternally 
surprising,  has  established  her  power  in  new 
fields. 

During  the  five  war  years  a  revolution  has 
taken  place  in  the  industrial  position  of  women. 


20          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

But  the  war  was  not  the  cause  of  the  revolu- 
tion. It  only  afforded  an  opportunity  for 
forces  to  display  themselves  which  already 
were  in  action.  It  hurried  women  forward, 
running  at  top  speed,  along  paths  where  before 
their  feet  had  slowly  walked.  War  hastened 
the  action  of  forces  existing  already.  The 
wage-earning  woman  came  in  with  the  forties 
with  the  factory  system,  and  every  year  she  has 
increased  in  numbers,  but  during  the  five  years 
of  war  her  ranks  have  gained  an  enormous  in- 
flux; moreover,  a  different  class  of  girls  and 
women  have  come  to  seek  different  kinds  of 
work.  And  what  marks  the  permanent  im- 
portance of  this  is  that  a  change  of  occupations 
has  brought  with  it  a  startling  change  of  be- 
havior and  outlook. 

Just  as  the  militarist  has  regarded  war,  not 
as  a  means  of  preventing  the  enslavement  of 
peoples  and  their  subjection  to  foreign  rule, 
but  rather  as  in  itself  a  source  of  virtue  and 
blessing,  of  progress  and  civilization ;  so  too  the 
feminist  teachers  have  told  us,  not  that  the  en- 
trance of  women  into  munition  works  was 
necessary  to  enable  our  country  to  arm  for  its 
terrible  war,  but  have  hailed  the  successive 
appearances  of  women  in  factories,  foundries, 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     21 

and  railway-stations  as  in  itself  a  great  step 
forward;  as  a  goal  long  strived  for  that  has 
been  gained.    What  has  been  going  on  is  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  process  by  which  women  are  led 
more  and  more  to  escape  from  any  specializa- 
tion of  function  and  are  brought  into  compe- 
tition with  men  in  every  kind  of  occupation. 
Now,  let  us  be  clear  about  it:  this  is  a  process 
which  makes  the  excitement  and  experience  and 
possible  good  of  the   individual  woman  out- 
weigh in  importance  the  safeguarding  of  the 
perpetual    stream   of   man.     A   confusion   of 
values  has  led  women  astray.     Being  a  woman 
is  a  handicap.     For  the  true  carrying  out  of  the 
duties  of  the  wife  and  mother  physical  and 
mental  quiet  and   sound   nerves   are   needed. 
The  industrial  field  has  become  the  ideal  place 
of  action  for  the  feminists,  who  persistently 
romanticize  the  independent  commercial  or  in- 
dustrial career,   trampling  heedlessly  on  the 
wisdom  of  the  past,  bent  on  living  their  own 
little  lives  and  all  that  kind  of  egoistic  futility; 
holding  up  as  admirable  cheap  achievements 
in   the  hell   of  modern   competitive,   beggar- 
your-fellow-worker,  sell-at-a-profit  industrial- 
ism; blackening  as  sacrifice,  as  a  limiting  of 
character,  woman's  service  to  her  husband  and 


22          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

her  children,  her  work  in  the  home  and  in  the 
nursery. 

I  tell  you  women  everywhere  among  us  are 
being  starved  of  sacrifice  and  service.  Sacri- 
fice lives  in  the  soul  of  a  woman,  and  not  alone 
in  the  separate  spirit  of  the  individual  woman 
to  whom  it  is  communicated  only  through  a 
losing  of  herself,  which  marks  her  union  with 
the  greatest  powers  of  life.  It  is,  I  think,  one 
of  the  most  destroying  tragedies  of  our  indus- 
trial society  that  women  are  denied  this  sus- 
tenance in  a  fixed  and  regulated  unison  of  sac- 
rifice, are  forced  away  from  service  to  life, 
excited  to  do  violence  to  their  deepest  instinct, 
by  engaging  in  the  deadly  and  futile  rivalry, 
where  the  greatest  successfulness  must  bring 
to  them  the  greatest  destruction. 

There  has  been  much  happening  to  bring 
fear.  Something  has  gone  wrong  with  the  wo- 
men of  this  land.  In  saying  this,  I  am  not 
forgetting  the  splendidness  of  their  work ;  what 
I  complain  of  is  that  their  womanly  vision  has 
failed.  In  France,  as  is  evident  to  all,  the  at- 
titude of  women  has  been  very  different.  The 
French  women  also  worked  hard  during  the 
war  to  save  their  country,  but  they  did  not  as 
our  women  have  done,  like  war-work  for  its 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     23 

own  sake.  They  never  transferred  their  af- 
fections from  their  homes  to  the  factories  of 
war,  they  were  too  certain  of  themselves,  too 
content  with  their  power  as  women  to  do  any- 
thing so  foolish.  What  is  the  explanation  of 
this  profound  difference  in  attitude?  Why 
has  the  vision  of  English  women  failed  ?  That 
is  the  question  to  which  we  have  to  try  to  find 
an  answer. 

II 

The  great  part  played  by  women  coming 
forward  during  the  war  to  take  the  place  of 
men  called  to  the  army  is  disclosed  in  a  White 
Paper  recently  issued  by  the  Board  of  Trade. 
Over  a  million  and  a  half  women  offered  their 
services,  in  addition  to  those  already  em- 
ployed.1 The  increase  has  been  the  highest 
in  the  occupations  in  which  comparatively  few 
women  were  engaged  before  the  war.  In 
April,  1918,  701,000  women  were  working  on 
munitions  and  774,000  in  other  industrial  gov- 
ernment employment.  A  disturbing  fact  re- 
vealed (called,  I  note,  in  the  Report  an  inter- 
esting point!}  is  the  number  of  women  who 
have  been  engaged  in  hard,  laboring  work. 

i  The  statistics  show  the  situation  up  to  April,  1918. 


24          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Before  the  war  when  the  public  discovered 
women  doing  very  hard  work,  it  excited  indig- 
nation and  pity.  The  women  chain-makers  of 
Craddock  Heath,  to  cite  one  example,  were  ac- 
corded general  commiseration.  But  during 
the  war  our  feelings  on  the  question  would  seem 
to  have  undergone  a  somewhat  sudden  trans- 
formation; a  complete  turn-round  has  taken 
place  in  our  attitude.  Heavy  work  done  by 
women — foundry  work,  for  instance,  demand- 
ing great  expenditure  of  physical  strength  l  has 
excited  admiration  and  become  an  important 
factor  of  the  industrial  situation.  A  glamour 
of  patriotic  war  service,  added  to  the  lure  of 
high  wages,  has  been  thrown  like  a  cloak  of  ro- 
mance over  such  exhibitions  of  female  power. 
They  became  victories  of  female  will  over  fe- 
male weakness. 

Certainly  in  many  cases  the  work  done  was 
quite  unsuitable  for  women.  The  employ- 
ment of  married  women  during  long  days  of 
tiring  work  had  inevitable  results.  Babies 
were  neglected  or  births  were  deliberately  pre- 
vented. This  spendthrift  folly  will  have  to  be 
paid  for  in  the  future. 

i  The  words  I  have  italicized  are  not  mine,  but  are  quoted 
from  the  Report, 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     25 

Not  that  I  believe  that  all  apparently  hard 
work  to  be  on  an  equality  of  unfitness  for  wo- 
men. Country  work  is  generally  healthful; 
though  hard  work  it  is  restful  to  the  nerves. 
Every  kind  of  nerve-racking  work  as  in  fac- 
tories, heavy  weight-lifting,  long  standing,  and 
the  tending  of  machinery  without  any  kind  of 
human  interest,  must  be  detrimental  to  women. 
Certain  employments,  consecrated  by  custom 
as  comparatively  womanly,  yet,  in  their  nerve- 
exhausting  details  mean  ill-health.  Take,  for 
an  instance,  the  average  shop-girl,  or  machine 
worker,  with  her  whitened  face,  dragging  steps 
and  flattened  figure :  does  she  not  show  plainly 
that  she  is  anaemic  and  wanting  in  vitality? 
On  the  other  hand,  to  my  eye  the  lift  attend- 
ants on  the  tubes,  the  charming  conductresses 
of  the  'buses  seem  healthy,  though  their  work 
has  been  done  only  recently  by  women.  I 
would  make  the  influence  of  an  occupation  on 
woman's  health — considering  first  and  as  most 
important  her  primary  biological  function  as 
a  potential  mother — the  test  of  its  womanli- 
ness. But  the  health  of  women  will  never  be 
protected  while  we  are  content  to  accept  the 
valuations  and  suffer  the  defilements  of  this 
commercial  age. 


26         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

III 

Only  this  morning  I  have  been  reading  the 
newly  issued  Report  of  the  War  Cabinet  Com- 
mittee on  Women  in  Industry,  a  large  book  of 
340  pages,  packed  with  information,  in  partic- 
ular   as    to    "the    increased    employment    of 
women  owing  to  the  development  of  automatic 
machinery."     What  I  read  fills  me  with  dis- 
may and  indignation.     I  was  not  prepared— 
and  I  thought  I  was  prepared  for  anything— 
for  such  blindness  of  outlook. 

To  prove  this,  let  me  quote  directly  from  the 
Report.  The  Committee  urges  rightly  the 
importance  to  the  health  of  the  workers  of 
good  food,  clothing  and  domestic  comfort,  and 
the  necessity  of  good  wages  to  maintain  this 
standard.  But  why  are  these  improved  con- 
ditions recommended?  Listen  to  what  is  said : 

Properly  nourished  women  have  a  much 
greater  reserve  of  energy  than  they  have 
usually  been  credited  with,  and  under  suit- 
able conditions  they  can  properly  and  ad- 
vantageously be  employed  upon  more  ardu- 
ous occupation  than  has  been  considered  de- 
sirable in  the  past,  even  when  these  involve 
considerable  activity  and  physical  strain.  . .  . 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     27 

And  a  little  further: 

It  is  desirable  that  women's  wide  employ- 
ment should  be  made  permanent. 

In  another  passage  the  Committee  report  that 
on  piece  work  a  woman  will  always  beat  a  man. 
And  again  further  on:  On  mass  production 
she  will  come  first  every  time.  .  .  .  Men  will 
never  stand  the  monotony  of  a  fast  repetition 
job  like  women;  they  will  not  stand  by  a  ma- 
chine pressing  all  their  lives,  but  a  woman 
will.1 

Nothing  that  I  can  say,  or  any  writer  could 
say,  could  be  more  vividly  condemning  than 
are  these  passages.  They  have  rilled  me  with 
so  deep  a  protest  that  really  I  can  hardly  trust 
myself  to  write  any  comment.  This  is  the 
ideal  now  set  before  us  for  the  industrial  wo- 
man "to  stand  by  a  machine  pressing  all  her 
life."  I  ask,  Is  it  for  this  that  the  sons  of  these 
women  have  died?  Marriage  is  spoken  of  as 
"one  of  women's  industrial  drawbacks,"  "it 
makes  her  less  ambitious  and  enterprising." 

i  It  is  wprth  noting  that,  as  far  as  I  know,  no  word  of 
protest  has  been  made  by  women  against  these  statements. 
The  Report,  since  I  wrote  this  chapter,  has  been  widely  com- 
mented on  in  the  daily  papers,  in  some  of  the  weeklies,  and  in 
all  the  suffrage  papers,  but  these  passages  have  been  passed 
over.  Surely  this  is  very  significant. 


28         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  unfair.  The  ques- 
tions involved  are,  I  know,  immense  and  many- 
sided.  There  can  be  no  easy  dismissal  of  this 
valuable  Report  in  condemnation.  Mrs.  Sid- 
ney Webb's  minority  Report 1  in  particular  is 
valuable ;  and  in  many  ways  the  findings  of  the 
Committee  are  excellent.  Everyone  must 
agree  with  the  wise  recommendations  as  to  the 
reduction  of  the  hours  of  work  and  better  con- 
ditions of  labor.  They  are  in  advance  of  any- 
thing hitherto  proposed.  The  popular  for- 
mula of  "equal  pay  for  equal  work"  or  more 
correctly  "equal  value,"  is  accepted.  If  wo- 
men are  to  do  men's  work,  obviously  they  ought 
to  be  paid  men's  wages.  Other  very  com- 
mendable recommendations  concern  pensions 
for  widowed,  deserted  or  necessitous  mothers 
(I  should  add  unmarried  mothers).  State 
payment  is  advised  for  the  entire  cost  of  the 
lying-in-period  as  the  only  way  to  ensure  births 
under  satisfactory  conditions  to  the  child  and 
the  mother.  All  this  is  just  and  good.  If  the 
state  desires  women  to  remain  in  industrial  oc- 
cupations, it  is  some  gain  that  help  should  be 
given  them,  when  for  a  few  weeks  they  go  from 
the  factory  to  do  their  own  work  and  bear 

i  Since  published  by  the  Fabian  Society  as  a  small  book. 


children.  Yet,  after  all,  is  there  not  something 
ridiculous,  yes,  and  also  disgraceful,  in  such  a 
compromise.  We  leave  a  woman  "to  stand 
by  a  machine  pressing  all  her  life"  (a  work  of 
monotony,  so  nerve-exhausting  and  soul-dead- 
ening that  no  man  will  do  it) ,  and  then  we  pay 
her  a  small  sum  to  enable  her  to  bear  an  en- 
feebled child.  Afterwards  we  send  her  back 
to  the  factory  and  open  State  creches  and  nur- 
sery-schools to  rid  her  of  the  responsibilities 
and  joys  of  bringing  up  her  child.  Such  mis- 
erable makeshifts  for  fitting  motherhood  could 
be  acceptable  only  in  an  industrially  ruled  so- 
ciety, where  the  simple  belief  would  seem  to 
be  that  a  woman  can  do  everything  that  men 
won't  do — and  their  own  work  as  well. 

IV 

Let  us  be  honest.  Do  we  care  for  the  cher- 
ishing of  children?  Do  we  want  to  preserve 
the  health  and  help  mothers?  Are  we  really 
concerned  with  the  prevention  of  our  high  in- 
fantile death-rate,  with  all  the  futile  suffering 
without  any  sense  of  purpose  or  compensation 
that  it  must  entail  to  children  and  to  mothers? 
Let  us  pray  to  care  more  passionately,  to  see  a 
vision  of  motherhood  such  as  will  force  us  to 


30          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

act  differently;  a  vision  which,  as  when  the 
mists  clear  away  among  the  mountains,  will 
show  a  wide  world  lit  by  the  sun.  It  would 
not  then  be  difficult  for  us  to  know  what  to  do ; 
we  should  decide  unhesitatingly  as  to  the 
mother  in  industry,  that  she  ought  not  to  be 
there. 

V 

Many  facts  combine  in  acclaiming  our  indif- 
ference; all  of  which  show  our  distressing  in- 
ability to  take  a  wide  view  of  social  problems 
with  our  commercially  blinded  eyes.  We  look 
at  everything,  even  the  nation's  children, 
through  spectacles  of  gold.  I  cannot  wonder 
at  our  endless  sicknesses  and  crime. 

A  small  paper-backed  book  is  now  lying 
upon  my  desk.  It  is  an  inquiry  most  carefully 
made  by  the  Minister  of  Reconstruction  into 
the  conditions  of  juvenile  employment  during 
the  war,  and,  to  me  at  any  rate,  it  is  pitiless  in 
its  revelation  of  our  failure  in  this  period  of 
stress  in  knowing  how  to  live. 

It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  find  a  more 
complete  condemnation  of  what  we  have  been 
allowing  to  go  on  in  our  factories  and  work- 
shops. The  Report  reveals  an  intolerable  neg- 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     31 

lect,  a  reckless  betrayal  of  young  lives  that  not 
even  the  emergency  of  war  can  sanction.1 
Mark  what  the  report  tells  us: 

Unless  those  most  competent  to  judge  are 
mistaken,  in  the  generation  which  entered 
industry  between  1914  and  1918  vitality  has 
been  lowered,  morale  undermined,  and  train- 
ing neglected. . . 

For  three  years  numbers  of  young  persons 
have  been  exposed  to  almost  every  influence 
which  could  impair  health,  undermine  char- 
acter and  unfit  them,  both  in  body  and  mind, 
for  regular  industry  and  intelligent  citizen- 
ship. 

And  this  passage  also : 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  community, 
the  adolescent  worker  is  a  potential  parent 
and  a  potential  citizen  .  .  .  there  is  no  doubt 
whatever  what  course  of  action  should  be  pre- 
scribed by  consideration  for  the  interests  of 
the  nation.  It  would  be  to  subordinate  the 
employment  of  young  persons  for  their  im- 
mediate utility  to  their  preparation  for  more 

i  An  excellent  article  on  the  Report,  entitled  "  Demobiliza- 
tion of  Juvenile  Workers,"  by  Miss  L.  B.  Hutchins,  appeared 
in  the  Contemporary  Review,  February,  1919. 


32          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

effective  work  as  men  and  women . . .  The 
danger  is  not  that  there  may,  in  the  present, 
be  too  few  adolescent  laborers,  but  that  there 
may  be  too  many,  and  that  as  a  result  there 
may  in  the  future  be  too  few  healthy  and 
well  trained  adult  workers  and  intelligent 
citizens. 

The  profit-seeking  employer,  the  patriotic 
maker  of  munitions,  considers  output :  he  does 
not  think  of  the  girls'  or  the  boys'  future,  of  the 
adult  employment  for  which  they  are  being 
prepared,  or  not  prepared,  or  if  the  occupation 
leads,  as  so  often  is  the  case,  to  a  blank  wall. 
No  kind  of  concern  is  shown  of  the  degree  in 
which  the  occupation  enlarges  the  interests  of 
the  growing  minds,  or  fritters  them  away  and 
leaves  for  a  later  use  nothing  but  a  dead  ma- 
chine, capable  only  of  spasmodic  excitement; 
does  not  think  of  the  effect  of  long  hours  or  of 
large  wages  and  their  consequent  premature 
freedom  from  home  restraints  on  character. 

The  last  mentioned  evil  has  been  greatly  ac- 
centuated by  the  absence  of  soldier  fathers. 
The  indictable  offenses  committed  by  the 
young  have  increased  markedly  during  the 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     88 

war,  and  surely  we  are  responsible  for  this 
lapse  of  children  into  crime. 

We  have  permitted  heavy  and  nerve-ex- 
hausting work  to  be  done  in  just  the  years  when 
the  adolescent  was  making  the  always  difficult 
passage  of  the  boy  to  the  man,  of  the  girl  to  the 
woman.  And  for  this  reason  their  suppressed, 
not-understood,  thwarted  instincts  have  broken 
out  in  unpleasing  and  often  dangerous  ways. 
Is  it  any  wonder  if  in  such  circumstances  boys 
turn  to  petty  robberies  and  other  unsocial  acts, 
while  girls  display  some  of  the  less  estimable 
characteristics  of  the  prostitute? 

Our  ideal  is  to  ignore  sex  in  industry;  to 
deny  the  strong  and  necessary  separations  that 
nature's  wisdom  places  as  barriers  between  boy 
and  girl,  between  man  and  woman.  We  make 
our  sons  and  daughters  compete  in  education 
and  in  industry.  No  doubt  education  and  in- 
dustry are  ill-fitted  for  males,  but  at  any  rate 
they  were  intended  for  males.  Intellectually 
inferior  to  the  boy  or  the  man,  the  girl  or  wo- 
man is  not.  She  is  exasperatingly  observant, 
often  understands  character  with  unconsidered 
quickness,  feels  spontaneously;  but  it  does  not 
follow  that  there  is  any  value  for  her  in  the  col- 


34         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

lection  of  dead  facts,  stored  by  abstract-minded 
professors — all  the  futile  things  we  call  educa- 
tion, which  show  in  every  direction  the  most 
coarse  lack  of  understanding  of  the  needs  of 
the  child  and  of  life.  And  the  girl  suffers  more 
than  the  boy,  for  the  girl-student  does  as  she  is 
told  much  more  conscientiously  than  boys. 
Similarly  in  industry:  tapping  or  pushing  at 
a  machine  until  she  taps  or  pushes  on  in  her 
dreams ;  all  the  more  monotonous  kinds  of  ma- 
chine-tending will  wear  feminine  nerves,  nat- 
urally more  irritable  than  those  of  men,  more 
than  the  same  work  will  wear  the  male  nerves. 
Not  that  I  believe  in  subordinating  the  worker 
of  either  sex  to  the  machine.  What  I  want  to 
prevent  is  the  same  stupid  sacrifice  of  girls  and 
women  in  industry  as  has  been  permitted  in  the 
case  of  boys  and  men.  There  has  been  in  our 
commercialized  society  no  kind  of  effective  tra- 
dition for  the  care  and  guidance  of  adolescent 
workers,  and,  there  is  no  escaping  from  the 
condemning  proofs  of  our  neglect:  there  has 
been,  and,  indeed,  is  still  going  on,  in  many 
directions  a  vast  range  of  betrayal  and  baseness 
in  the  way  we  have  shirked  our  duties  to  the 
young.  As  the  writer,  from  whose  Report  I 
have  quoted,  says,  with  a  rather  grim  irony:  "a 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     35 

strain  has  been  put  on  the  character  of  young 
persons  which  might  have  corrupted  the  integ- 
rity of  a  Washington  and  have  undermined 
the  energy  of  Samuel  Smiles." 

VI 

The  war  is  over,  and  with  it  the  special  and 
pressing  need  for  women's  and  girls'  work,  but 
the  consequences  of  the  war  period  are  far,  in- 
deed, from  nearing  their  end.  Following  all 
the  industrial  confusion  of  the  war,  we  are  now 
facing  the  certainty  of  wide-spread  unemploy- 
ment among  women  and  girls.  We  have  con- 
demned thousands  of  them  to  unemployment 
with  the  same  thoughtlessness  with  which  they 
were  called  into  industry ;  and  in  the  less  skilled 
ranges  of  employment,  the  always  existing 
competition  between  men  and  women  and  boys 
and  girls  is  certain  to  be  fiercely  accentuated. 

It  is  officially  stated  that  the  number  of  wo- 
men and  girls  who  took  out-of-work  donation 
policies  during  the  period  between  the  Armis- 
tice and  February  14th  was  633,318.  Of  these 
the  large  majority  630,874  were  civilians,  while 
2444  belonged  to  the  forces.  Thousands  of 
women  and  girls  who  during  the  war  proved 
themselves  most  capable  at  engineering  and 


36         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

wood-work  are  now  ruled  out  of  those  occupa- 
tions. There  was  a  girl  of  twenty,  for  in- 
stance, at  Loughborough  who  showed  real 
genius  at  gauge-making,  work  that  required 
accuracy  to  the  ten  thousandth  part  of  an  inch. 
Although  she  took  to  the  work  only  during  the 
war,  she  became  so  good  that  instead  of  being 
sent  to  a  factory  she  was  kept  to  instruct 
others.  This  is  the  type  of  girl  who  now  has 
to  seek  other  employment.  There  can  be  no 
question  of  the  difficulties  of  the  situation. 

Many  workers  are  holding  out  to  get  the 
same  level  of  work  and  pay  as  they  have  left. 
Strongest  of  all  is  the  aversion  shown  to  do- 
mestic work:  many  girls  who  have  been  en- 
gaged on  munitions  during  the  war  have 
thrown  up  their  unemployment  pay  rather 
than  again  enter  domestic  service.  Factory 
work  has  bitten  into  girl's  lives;  they  do  not 
want  to  do  any  other  kind  of  work. 

Visit  one  of  the  Women's  Employment  Ex- 
changes, if  you  would  wish  to  get  to  know  these 
girls.  The  Exchange  is  usually  a  hall  or  large 
room  where  busy  clerks  are  at  work  at  long 
tables.  At  some  Exchanges  as  many  as  2000  to 
2500  women  and  girls  will  be  on  the  books. 
Once  a  week  they  receive  their  out-of-work 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     37 

pay ;  every  alternate  day  they  have  to  visit  the 
Exchange  to  see  what  jobs  are  vacant.  You 
may  watch  them  pass  in  long  queues  from  one 
table  to  another.  A  few  of  the  women  will 
probably  carry  babies,  but  the  great  majority 
will  be  young  girls,  showily  dressed.  You  will 
hear  the  discordant  murmur  of  their  voices 
broken  often  by  sharp  giggles.  The  moving 
lines  seem  to  go  on  and  on  unendingly.  At  one 
table  the  girls  sign  the  register,  at  another  they 
learn  of  vacancies.  Some  of  the  girls  fail  to  go 
to  the  second  table.  An  attendant,  if  you  ask 
the  cause,  will  tell  you  this  is  a  frequent  occur- 
rence. The  girls  are  punctilious  in  signing  the 
register,  which  they  must  do  to  obtain  the  un- 
employment dole,  but  they  are  less  particular 
about  finding  the  work  which  will  bring  it  to 
an  end.  At  present  they  are  content  with  the 
enjoyments  of  the  streets  and  picture  palaces. 
I  have,  on  many  different  occasions,  spoken 
to  these  workers :  one  case  I  may  quote  as  typi- 
cal of  many.  She  was  young,  about  twenty,  I 
should  think,  and  incredibly  self-confident. 
Before  the  war  she  had  been  a  tailor's  needle 
hand  earning  16s.  a  week;  for  the  last  two 
years  she  was  inspecting  fuses  at  a  wage  of  45s. 
a  week.  What  was  she  now  going  to  do? 


38          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Neither  she  nor  any  of  the  other  women  to 
whom  I  have  spoken  seemed  to  have  any  clear 
realization  of  the  fact  that  the  change-over 
from  war  to  peace  industries  by  munition  fac- 
tories, with  the  return  of  many  thousands  of 
men,  was  bound  to  result  in  a  serious  excess 
supply  of  woman  labor.  I  remember  it  was 
then,  while  I  talked  to  this  girl,  that  the  first 
great  suspicion  stole  into  my  heart.  We  have 
heard  so  much  of  the  splendid  conduct  of  the 
women  and  the  wonderful  way  in  which  they 
have  done  the  work  of  men,  but  the  facts  stand 
up  stark.  Women  have  had  a  good  time. 
Now,  they  are  going  to  struggle  to  keep  it. 
These  girls  are  vastly  more  rebellious  than  any 
women  were  five  years  ago.1 

Look  at  the  girl-workers  you  may  see  every- 
where in  such  numbers  to-day;  they  are  of  all 
ages  and  they  belong  to  all  classes  of  society. 
Watch  them  as  they  fight  for  an  entrance  into 
motor  omnibuses  and  trams,  as  they  crowd  the 
station  platforms.  See  them  parading  the 

i  Since  writing  this,  the  Government,  backed  by  the  Labor 
Party,  has  passed  its  Pre-war  Practices  (Restoration)  Bill, 
which  will  exclude  women  from  many  of  the  trades  which  they 
have  entered  during  the  war;  trades  in  which  they  have  done 
skilled  work  and  received  high  wages.  On  August  15th,  The 
Sex  Disqualification  (Removal)  Bill,  after  a  promising  early 
career,  went  by  default. 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     39 

streets  in  their  unemployed  hours ;  they  are  the 
companions  of  every  soldier;  they  crowd  the 
cinemas,  music-halls,  and  theaters.  Who  has 
altered  the  fashions  about  every  three 
months?  and  this  has  been  going  on  in  war 
time.  Why,  the  munition  workers  and  the 
forty-shilling-a-week  girls.  No  longer  was 
finery  always  bought  out  of  men's  earnings, 
but  out  of  their  own;  put  on  to  give  some  man 
a  treat  or  to  fire  the  envy  of  other  girls.  The 
factory  girl  has  taken  to  silk  stockings  and  fine 
lingerie  and  the  lady  to  Balbriggan  and  calico. 
The  vast  change  that  has  come  into  the  daily 
lives  of  women,  possibly,  in  no  direction  is  more 
startling  than  it  has  been  in  this  matter  of 
dress.  Many  shops  which  are  near  the  fac- 
tories where  munition  girls  have  been  em- 
ployed have  organized  war-clubs,  in  which,  on 
payment  of  a  small  weekly  sum,  the  girls  could 
buy  articles  of  attire  far  in  advance  even  of 
their  high  wages.  Shops  festooned  with  furs 
of  every  description,  where  coats  costing  ten, 
twenty,  and  even  thirty  and  more  guineas,  were 
frequently  bought;  shops  whose  windows  were 
a  clutter  of  tissue-like  crepe-de-chine,  under- 
clothes and  blouses;  boot-clubs  and  jewelry- 
clubs,  these  last,  garish  establishments,  secure 


40          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

in  the  glamour  of  irresistible  imitations — all 
have  urged  to  extravagance  and  a  madness  for 
ornament. 

The  West-end  tradesmen  and  the  sharehold- 
ers of  the  big  drapery  shops  have  been  chuck- 
ling and  rubbing  their  hands.  Dividends  have 
sprung  up  to  a  figure  they  have  never  before 
reached.  Never  before  has  so  much  money 
been  wasted  on  adornment. 

Our  young  women  have  little  thought  be- 
yond the  present  use  of  what  they  buy.  But  I 
believe  that  much  of  this  extravagance — the 
delight  in  self -gratification  which  finds  other 
expression  in  jazzing,  in  sweet-eating,  in  card 
playing,  smoking  and  similar  pleasures — is  not 
so  much  the  outcome  of  the  thoughtlessness  of 
youth  as  a  way  of  escape  from  Self,  a  misdi- 
rected effort  toward  safety,  unconscious  no 
doubt,  but  terribly  real. 

Notice  these  girls.  You  will  see  them  best 
in  a  walk  down  Oxford  street  or  in  Leicester 
Square,  where,  snared  by  each  displayed  win- 
dow, they  hover  and  cluster  like  wasps  drawn 
to  a  trap  of  sweet  food.  All  the  biggest  shops 
in  London  are  devoted  to  women's  clothes. 
Do  you  realize  that?  And  it  is  not  only  that 
they  are  the  biggest,  but  there  are  more  of 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS    41 

them  than  any  other  half  a  dozen  trades  put  to- 
gether— the  only  exception  being  the  drink 
trade.  During  the  war  their  number  has  mul- 
tiplied, indeed  in  some  districts  shops  have 
sprung  up  like  mushrooms  in  the  night. 

There  is  a  much  deeper  importance  in  this 
question  of  dress  than  usually  is  allowed.  Ir- 
responsible spending  does  encourage  irrespon- 
sible living. 

Almost  everyone  has  at  one  time  or  another 
thought  of  some  reform  they  would  wish  to  be 
made  in  the  society  in  which  they  live.  Now, 
if  I  could  have  my  choice  as  to  any  one  reform 
I  would  choose  to  be  done,  it  would  be  to  make 
it  illegal  for  a  tradesman  to  display  for  sale 
any  kind  of  wearing  apparel,  dress  goods  or 
articles  connected  with  a  woman's  toilet,  either 
in  shop  windows  or  inside  the  shops.  Nothing 
must  be  shown  to  any  customer  until  it  is  asked 
for.  I  do  really  believe  this  simple  reform 
would  do  more  to  emancipate  women,  and, 
through  their  emancipation,  to  liberate  men, 
than  any  other  reform.  We  pray  in  our 
churches  "lead  us  not  into  temptation,"  and 
everywhere  we  permit  in  our  shops  the  display 
of  goods  to  tempt  the  young  and  the  foolish. 

An  orgy  of  adornment  has  been  claiming  a 


42         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

veritable  sacrifice  of  comfort  and  health,  pos- 
sibly even  of  life.  All-night  vigils  in  search 
of  bargains  are  frequent  at  the  bi-annual  sale- 
festivals.  Policemen  have  to  restrain  the  ar- 
dent votaries,  as  they  press  forward  and  strug- 
gle and  fight  to  obtain  entrance  to  certain 
shops,  like  caged  animals  fighting  for  food. 
Fashions  are  followed  passionately  and  with 
little  variety.  Dark  heads  and  golden  heads 
have  the  hair  bobbed  or  dressed  in  the  same 
way,  with  the  same  plastered  side-curls,  and 
adorned  with  hats  alarmingly  alike,  weighted 
with  queer  and  polychrome  ornaments  of 
beads,  wool,  tassels,  and  I  know  not  what, 
while  the  face  beneath  shows  one  color  of  yel- 
lowish white,  the  result  of  the  excessive  and  un- 
skillful use  of  cheap  powder.  In  the  snow  and 
slush  of  the  spring,  I  have  seen  girls  dressed  in 
a  way  fit  only  for  the  hottest  indoor  room. 
The  gauze  silk-stockings  offering  no  protection 
to  the  tortured  feet  even  when  the  boots  and 
shoes  were  made  of  more  than  paper  stoutness ; 
while  the  fashionable  woolen  wrap,  even  the 
fur  collar  or  coat  could  not  counterbalance  the 
danger  to  health  from  blouses,  low-necked  and 
fashioned  of  stuff  scarcely  thicker  than  cob- 
webs. Here  and  there  the  many  girls,  beauti- 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     43 

ful  in  quiet  uniforms,  have  served  to  throw  into  \ 
sharper  contrast  the  absurdities  of  the  dress  of  \ 
their  sisters. 

I  ask  myself  how  this  taste  for  spending 
money  on  dress  and  ornament — a  taste  very 
little  different  from  the  instinct  which  causes 
savages  to  adorn  their  half-naked  bodies  with 
feathers,  beads  and  shells — is  to  be  satisfied 
when  women's  wages  fall  ?  There  would  seem 
to  be  nothing  too  useless  or  too  expensive  for 
girls  to  buy.  Work  has  failed  in  teaching 
them  the  simple  lesson  that  not  only  is  it  wrong 
to  waste  money,  but  it  is  wrong  to  waste  labor 
for  the  gratification  of  whims.  We  are  hav- 
ing the  need  for  economy  preached  and  shouted 
at  us  from  every  quarter.  Surely  it  is  right 
to  think  about  this  wild  spending  on  adorn- 
ment, and  give  at  least  a  few  glances  to  the 
future. 

What  is  likely  to  happen  now  when  the  full 
years  of  war  change  to  empty  years  of  peace? 
No  longer  able  to  spend  in  the  way  to  which 
their  high  wages  have  made  them  accustomed, 
girls  will  seek  to  get  presents  from  men;  they 
will  want  excitement  and  the  dress  and  pleas- 
ures to  satisfy  that  need,  also  to  hold  the  envy 
of  their  friends.  This  must  lead  to  prostitu- 


44         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tion.  The  weaker  sort  of  girl  will  prefer  to 
sell  her  body  rather  than  go  back  to  a  hum- 
drum life  of  drudgery  in  back-kitchens.  It  is 
well  that  we  should  remember  that,  if  women 
are  to  suffer  through  men's  passions,  men  will 
suffer  no  less  from  women's  greed. 

I  desire  to  be  quite  fair.  Almost  all  girls, 
I  think,  are  better  looking  since  1914,  more 
confident,  more  brightly  attractive;  sometimes 
they  are  deliciously  gay,  more  often  cheaply 
aggressive  and  noisy.  Yet,  at  other  times, 
they  seem  deadened  and  slow  in  response. 
None  of  them  are  shy.  Their  eyes  say  things 
that  are  hard  to  read;  they  exhibit  no  end  of 
energy,  but  there  is  a  curious  kind  of  contra- 
diction— a  confusion  and  difficult  defiance, 
with  much  nervous  weakness.  I  can  find  no 
steadfast  happiness. 

I  would  ask  my  readers,  as  often  I  have 
asked  myself,  a  question :  Have  these  modern 
girls  not  lost  much  of  the  tender,  waiting,  in- 
definiteness  of  youth?  I  have  seen  so  many 
among  them  who,  to  me  at  least,  appear 
at  odds  with  the  world,  and  their  passionate, 
unbalanced  and  over-excited  natures.  Their 
faces  at  sixteen,  fifteen,  and  even  at  fourteen 
years,  already  are  old,  with  hard  confidence 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     45 

showing  in  the  bold  gaze,  but  no  happiness. 
How  many  bear  an  expression  of  almost  tired 
disappointment,  a  disappointment,  not  of  the 
senses,  but  of  the  soul.  And  this  expression  is 
so  common.  To  my  eyes,  girls  far  more  and 
far  oftener  look  alike  now  than  formerly  they 
did.  So  often  they  seem  acting,  struggling  al- 
most against  something  in  themselves;  some- 
thing they  don't  understand  that  draws  them 
into  many  bewildered  actions.  Can't  you  see* 
they  are  all  so  unconsciously  dissatisfied,  so  un- 
able to  possess  themselves  in  peace,  that  noth- 
ing they  do  matters?  You  will,  I  am  sure, 
deny  this  statement.  You  will  tell  me  again 
of  the  splendid  work  done  by  these  girls  and 
young  women,  you  will  speak  of  their  recogni- 
tion as  citizens  of  the  State,  of  how  life  has 
opened  to  them,  and  of  the  new  liberty  they 
have  gained  in  so  many  directions.  I  do  not 
mind.  I  care  nothing  for  the  liberty  in  out- 
side things  that  leaves  the  soul  in  chains.  I 
tell  you  they  are  dissatisfied  because  the  soul  of 
woman  is  crushed,  unable  to  come  up  from  its 
dark  hiding,  and  breathe  the  sun  and  light  to 
see  that  life  is  good.  Why  cannot  the  old  faith 
come  back  ?  Why  cannot  it  come  back  ? 


46         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 


VII 

It  is,  of  course,  easy  to  write  of  these  evils, 
the  difficult  thing  is  to  find  a  remedy.  Many 
attempts  are  being  made;  much  discussion  is 
taking  place  about  the  future  position  of  wo- 
men in  industry ;  training  is  being  given  to  ado- 
lescent girls;  even  schools  for  wives  have  been 
formed.  The  newly  established  Ministry  of 
Health  has  wide  schemes  for  maternity  and 
child  welfare.  Never  was  so  much  expended 
to  right  things  that  are  wrong.  Yet,  I  cannot 
think  the  remedies  offered  are  likely  to  be  sat- 
isfactory. 

Let  me  here  pause  for  a  moment  to  compare 
my  view  of  the  true  remedy  for  the  present  un- 
satisf  actoriness  of  women's  lives,  and  the  conse- 
quent wastage  of  baby  lives,  with  those  reme- 
dies now  so  commonly  put  forward  by  the  re- 
formers. I  assert  that  women  are  trying  in 
vain  to  transfer  their  affection  from  babies  to 
machines,  and  to  take  care  of  their  babies,  if 
they  have  them,  in  the  few  hours  left  over  after 
days  seriously  devoted  to  business.  I  will  test 
the  results  in  a  way  fairer  to  my  opponents 
than  to  myself,  comparing  the  effects  of  their 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     47 

method  at  its  best  with  my  system  in  circum- 
stances little  favorable  to  human  life. 

Bradford  is  a  wealthy  town:  spending  somej 
£40,000  annually  on  the  care  of  infants  in  a! 
total  population  of  300,000.  Its  institutions 
and  arrangements  for  this  purpose  are  famous ; 
its  infant  department,  its  graded  municipal 
milk,  its  free-feeding  for  expectant  mothers — 
all  are  as  nearly  perfect  as  is  possible;  and  the 
men  who  have  developed  and  direct  its  muni- 
cipal system  of  protection  for  infants  are  well 
known  for  their  ability  and  enthusiasm.  The 
birth-rate  is  as  low  as  Malthusians  could  desire. 
But  all  its  care  is  but  an  attempt  to  lessen  evils 
brought  about  by  a  wrong  system;  for  the 
mothers  of  Bradford  are  not  in  their  homes, 
but  in  woolen  factories. 

County  Roscommon  is  a  poor  district  in  Ire- 
land, with  a  primitive  and  superstitious  popu- 
lation of  agriculturists;  the  birth-rate  is  very 
high,  and  there  is  practically  no  public  provi- 
sion for  the  safeguarding  of  infant  life.  But 
its  backward  ignorant  mothers  tend  and  feed 
their  babies  after  the  manner  of  the  earliest 
ages. 

The  infant  death-rate  is  135  in  Bradford,  \ 
and  35  in  Roscommon. 


48         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

You  will  see  what  I  wish  to  make  plain. 
Those  whom  I  criticize  are  dealing  with  symp- 
toms instead  of  working  to  remove  the  real 
cause  of  the  disease.  They  work  hard  and 
achieve  little.  Of  course  their  efforts  are 
praiseworthy,  and,  under  present  conditions, 
frightfully  necessary.  But  they  are  just  about 
as  lastingly  useful  as  trying  to  mend  a  badly 
broken  china  cup  at  home  with  cheap  cement. 
You  know  what  happens:  as  soon  as  you  suc- 
ceed in  getting  two  pieces  to  stick  together  an- 
other piece  tumbles  away,  and,  at  last,  if  by  ex- 
cessive patience  the  work  gets  done  and  the  cup 
is  mended,  the  first  shock  of  hot  water  makes 
all  the  pieces  again  fall  apart.  It  is  a  solution 
that  gives  great  opportunity  of  employment, 
one  indeed  that  goes  on  forever;  perhaps  that 
is  why  it  fascinates  the  child-like  minds  of  the 
feminists.  I  want  something  very  different. 

I  want  a  tradition  of  life  to  hand  on  to  our 
daughters  and  to  their  daughters.  We  need 
a  strongly  deepened  sense  of  womanly  respon- 
sibility, wide-spread  and  universally  accepted; 
an  up-to-date  sense,  if  you  like  that  term.  I 
have  no  fears  of  change.  I  would  re-fix  our 
moral  standards  more  fearlessly  than  many 
who  think  me  old-fashioned.  But  what  I  want 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     49 

to  insist  upon  is  this:  The  standard  of  con- 
duct must  be  fixed  for  women.  Our  children 
want  something  settled,  not  everything  left  un- 
certain. Our  morals  (I  do  not  mean  our  sex- 
ual morals  only,  but  our  whole  ethical  and 
social  conduct)  has  become  like  a  skein  of  wool 
that  has  been  unraveled  by  a  puppy.  We 
want  a  firm  broad  way  in  which  it  is  good  and 
possible  for  all  of  us  to  walk  without  hurting 
one  another,  not  the  horrid  scramble  that  to- 
day we  accept  as  life. 

The  modern  conception  of  personal  rights  is 
essentially  individualistic,  and  has  arisen  only 
under  industrial  values  of  life;  the  result  of  its 
further  application  as  a  social  criterion  for  wo- 
men, must  logically  be  exactly  what  it  has  been 
in  the  experience  of  the  past  century:  a  bitter 
and  brutal  struggle  for  self-aggrandizement, 
with  the  failures  remorselessly  crushed  under- 
foot, and  the  very  idea  of  a  fixed  common  re- 
sponsibility and  common  good  for  all  forgotten 
or  denied.  My  plea  for  women  is,  therefore-, 
based  not  upon  the  notion  of  equal  rights,  but 
rather  upon  that  of  equal  duties.  Moral 
equality  means  equality  in  the  will  to  serve- 
not  self,  but  all.  And  the  practical  correlative 
of  this  conception  must  be  a  social  organization 


50         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

which  secures  equalities  of  opportunity  for 
service  to  women  and  men.  The  only  rights  I 
desire  to  claim  for  my  sex  are  those  necessary 
to  the  discharge  of  its  own  duties;  the  fulfill- 
ment of  the  instinctive  maternal  craving;  the 
realization  of  the  deepest  impulses  of  a  wo- 
man's nature. 

The  pitiless  war  of  every  individual  against 
his,  or  her,  fellow  waged  with  gold  or  with 
steel,  can  never  make  life  other  than  mean  and 
empty.  Women  and  men  must  learn  again  to 
regard  themselves  as  part  of  a  mightier  whole, 
one  of  the  human  race,  and,  as  we  feel  in 
moments  of  deeper  insight,  of  the  universe, 
which  is  a  unity  in  spite  of  all  the  discords  it 
contains. 

It  follows  from  this,  that  I  am  not  greatly 
concerned  with  what  any  individual  woman,  or 
group  of  women,  can  do,  or  cannot  do,  should 
be  encouraged  to  do,  or  be  restrained  from 
doing,  in  competition  with  men  and  with  each 
other,  but  rather  what  is  most  right  and  worth 
while  for  all  women,  as  women-,  to  do.  I  do 
not  want  freedom  for  each  woman  to  do  what 
she  wants. 

You  see,  in  my  view  of  life,  such  freedom 
can  lead  only  to  a  more  degraded  slavery. 


THE  PROSPERITY  OF  FOOLS     51 

And  because  I  am  certain  about  this,  I  do  not 
desire  success  for  women  in  the  blind  struggle 
based  on  the  doctrine  (so  fundamentally  un- 
true in  my  opinion)  of  personal  rights.  A 
doctrine  which  results  inevitably  in  separations, 
in  hatreds,  in  disorders  and  struggling  one  with 
another.  Unity  of  ideals  and  of  conduct  be- 
comes impossible.  The  general  life  is  driven 
about  in  this  way  or  the  other,  directed  by  this 
purpose  or  by  that,  but  always  by  individualis- 
tic principles,  and  not  to  serve  the  good  of  all, 
but  by  each  person  for  his  own,  or  her  own, 
ends.  How  can  order  come  out  of  such  a  way 
of  life?  Do  you  think  you  are  going  to  im- 
prove things  in  the  old  selfish  ways.  I  tell  you 
the  result  can  be  nothing  but  a  further  failure 
of  vision.  The  mountain  heights  become  ob- 
scured by  the  mists  going  up  from  the  damp 
valleys,  and  the  soul  loses  its  way. 


Second  Essay 
THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD 

WAR  MARRIAGES  AND  ROMANTIC  LOVE,  WHICH  CONTRASTS 
THE  ENGLISH  IDEAL  OF  PERSONAL  HAPPINESS  IN  MAR- 
RIAGE WITH  THAT  HELD  BY  THE  JEWS  OF  MARRIAGE 
AS  A  RACIAL  DUTY. 

"Which  forsaketh  the  guide  of  her  youth,  and  forget- 
teth  the  covenant  of  her  God." — Prov.  ii.  17. 


A  FEW  weeks  ago  I  read  a  book  about  a  war- 
marriage,  entitled  the  "Wife  of  a  Hero";  it 
was  not  a  good  novel,  but  the  situation  it  pre- 
sented was  of  great  interest.  We  witness  the 
manifold  conflicts  resulting  from  a  marriage 
entered  into  in  haste  and  under  superficial  emo- 
tions, between  a  war-hero  and  the  more  com- 
plicated type  of  modern  woman — the  woman 
of  brains  and  nerves,  fastidious,  intellectually 
passionate  and  at  the  same  time  swayed  by  a 
sensuality,  which  is  neither  acknowledged  nor 
understood.  Hence  this  woman's  marriage 

52 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD       53 

with  a  man,  who,  sufficiently  a  hero  to  die  mag- 
nificently (as  a  matter  of  truth  he  does  not  die 
and  returns  in  the  end  to  receive  the  Victoria 
Cross,  but  it  was  believed  he  was  dead)  was 
quite  unfitted  to  live  decently.  You  see,  his 
ideals  did  not  get  any  further  than  his  vanity. 
In  his  view  a  woman — whether  wife  or  mistress, 
it  did  not  signify  which  she  was — was  only  a 
chattel,  an  object  to  give  enjoyment  to  him,  in 
fact,  a  prostitute.  He  did  not  know  he  felt  this, 
could  not  know  it,  in  fact.  It  would  have 
needed  a  revolution  of  his  character  to  turn  his 
vision  to  something  other  than  himself. 
Neither  did  the  wife  realize  her  egoism,  an 
egoism  more  agreeable  certainly  than  was  his, 
because  on  a  less  crude  plane,  but  equally  rep- 
rehensible, as  spiritually  barren  and  limited  to 
Self  as  was  that  of  the  man. 

Now,  Miss  Netta  Syrett,  the  writer  of  the 
book,  seems  to  be  unaware  of  such  a  failure  on 
the  woman's  part.  All  the  blame  is  shoveled 
on  to  the  hero,  all  the  sympathy  wrapped  like 
a  thick  woolen  cloud  about  the  heroine. 
Miss  Syrett  is  a  great  feminist.  As  we  should 
expect,  the  marriage  is  broken  in  the  Divorce 
Court.  The  returned  and  invalided  hero,  dec- 
orated with  his  Victoria  Cross,  seeks  happiness 


54          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

with  an  earlier  love,  and  a  marriage  is  made  of 
a  frankly  sensual  character.  Meanwhile  the 
heroine  finds  a  spiritual  mate  in  the  person  of 
an  old  friend,  and  a  second  marriage  is  made. 
We  are  led  to  believe  that  all  the  wrong  is  set 
right.  Now,  I  doubt  this.  I  believe  the  cause 
which  brought  the  first  marriage  to  such  pain- 
ful disaster  was  not  dependent  only  on  the  evi- 
dent unsuitability  of  the  partners  to  live  with 
one  another;  the  grossness  of  the  man  and  the 
believed  refinement  of  the  woman  need  not 
necessarily  have  failed  in  finding  happiness  in 
union.  No,  the  cause  of  failure  was  deeper, 
within  themselves,  dependent  on  the  blind  ego- 
ism of  both  the  husband  and  the  wife  and  their 
wrong  understanding  of  the  institution  of  mar- 
riage. I  do  not  think  that  in  either  case  the 
second  marriages  were  likely  to  be  much  hap- 
pier than  the  first  marriage. 

II 

The  love-story  of  to-day  differs  in  one  essen- 
tial way  from  the  love-story  of  yesterday. 
Yesterday's  love  story  always  ended  with  mar- 
riage bells ;  to-day's,  which  is  a  far  harder  love- 
story  to  write,  begins  with  them.  Earlier 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      55 

authors,  in  short,  shirked  the  real  problem  of 
marriage,  they  ended  where  they  should  have 
begun.  For  the  main  difficulties  do  not  lie  in 
the  period  of  falling  in  love,  in  the  courtship  or 
the  honeymoon,  but  in  the  preservation  of  love 
after  these  passionate  preliminaries  are  over. 

Now,  I  would  like  to  be  able  to  say  that  the 
modern  love-story  affords  a  sure  sign  of  a 
change  that  has  taken  place  in  our  attitude  to- 
wards marriage.  I  am  not,  however,  at  all  cer- 
tain. We  talk  a  great  deal,  I  fear,  that  is  all. 
The  innumerable  tragedies  of  marriage  among 
us  to-day  are  witness  to  our  failure ;  they  have  a 
far  closer  connection  than  often  is  recognized 
with  the  romantic  and  vulgar  poverty  of  our 
point  of  view. 

Our  romances  are  slightly  vulgar.  Vul- 
garity is  a  sign  of  confusion  and  weakness  of 
spirit.  We  still  far  too  much  associate  ro- 
mance with  courtship  and  not  with  marriage; 
that  is  one  reason  English  marriages  so  often 
are  unhappy.  "Thank  God  that  our  love-time 
is  ended!"  cried  a  north  country  bride  on  the 
day  that  marriage  terminated  her  long  engage- 
ment. 

Now,  I  do  not  know  whether  this  delightful 
story  is  true,  but  it  does  illustrate  the  attitude 


56          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

of  many  ordinary  couples,  whose  love  adven- 
ture ends  at  the  very  hour  it  should  begin. 
Every  true  marriage  ought  to  be  a  succession 
of  courtships. 

Love  is  not  walking  round  a  rose-garden  in 
the  sunshine;  it's  living  together,  growing  to- 
gether. And  the  honeymoon  is  as  trifling  as 
the  hors  d'oeuvre  in  comparison  with  wedded- 
love,  and  as  unable  to  satisfy  the  deep  needs  of 
women  and  men.  Falling  in  love,  wooing,  and 
honeymooning  are  a  short  and  easy  episode, 
but  marriage  is  long  and  always  difficult. 
And  the  finding  and  maintaining  happiness  is 
a  definite  achievement  and  not  an  accident, 
for  it  is  beyond  accident.  It  is  the  result  of  a 
steadfast  ideal  and  a  diligent  cultivation. 


Ill 

Marriage  has  not  escaped  the  general  dis- 
turbances of  the  past  five  years.  The  causes 
are  many  and  obvious.  Man  is  generally 
guided,  not  directly  by  the  automatic  instincts, 
working  through  the  lower  nerve  centers,  but 
rather  by  ideas  acting  in  the  higher  nerve  cen- 
ters of  his  brain.  Instincts  with  him  are  not 
instinctive,  but  are  checked  and  supervised  by 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD       57 

intelligence.  Only  when  a  great  shock,  a  sud- 
den fear  or  joy,  occurs  does  the  instinctive 
working  replace  the  consciously  planned  ac- 
tion: the  man  dr  the  woman  find  themselves 
speaking  in  an  unaccustomed  voice,  saying 
what  they  did  not  know  they  would  say ;  doing 
unaccustomed  things,  which  they  had  never  in- 
tended to  do,  sometimes  they  lose  control  of 
their  body — they  rage,  their  speech  descends  to 
inarticulate  cries.  Then  the  old  system  of  in- 
stinctive response  to  the  outer  world,  which 
generally  is  inactive  and  so  imperceptibly  be- 
comes disused,  becomes  by  the  sudden  genera- 
tion of  excessive  emotion  stocked  with  energy, 
so  that  it  exceeds  in  power  the  energy  of  which 
the  intelligence  makes  use.  Impulses  leap  into 
being,  and  very  often  there  is  a  sudden  re- 
sponse to  adventure  and  more  primitive  ac- 
tions. 

This  is  what  the  War  did  in  many  depart- 
ments of  life.  Normal  control,  conventional 
standards,  old  careful  habits  of  conduct,  were 
broken  through  at  a  time  of  excessive  emo- 
tionalism. The  many  hasty  marriages  were  a 
sign  of  the  nervous  condition  of  the  times. 
The  customary  criticisms  of  reason  were  not 
heard,  or  not  until  the  emotional  storm  had 


58         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

subsided.  This  is,  of  course,  a  condition  not 
infrequent  in  marriage;  but  now  it  was  exag- 
gerated; such  marriages  may  not,  unfortu- 
nately, bear  the  scrutiny  of  minds  restored  to 
sobriety. 

We  have  called  these  war  marriages  real 
romances.  But  are  they?  What  does  the 
husband  know  of  the  girl  he  has  taken  to  be 
one  with  his  own  flesh?  What  does  she  know 
of  him?  Never  have  they  had  one  real  talk, 
never  stood  the  test  of  a  quarrel,  never  passed 
unexciting  days  with  one  another. 

I  want  to  labor  that  point.  The  most  fre- 
quent causes  of  trouble  in  marriage  are  born 
of  the  daily  fret  of  common  living,  of  minor 
habits,  of  omissions  and  stupidities.  Roman- 
tics may  protest,  but  what  most  strains  and 
tears  our  love  are  just  trifles,  so  insignificant 
that  rarely  is  their  adverse  action  even  noticed. 

The  safe  and  right  consideration  in  any  re- 
lationship that  is  to  last  into  marriage  is  not 
only — are  our  persons  agreeable  to  each  other? 
But,  can  we  live  together  and  continue  to  love 
one  another?  It  needs  a  lot  of  grit  and  a  lot 
of  duty  to  keep  in  love  with  daily  life.  But 
war  turned  men  into  heroes,  while  women 
thought  the  war  was  going  to  be  so  fine  they 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      59 

could  do  anything  to  help;  they  wanted  their 
share,  each  one  to  have  a  stake  for  herself,  and 
the  easiest  way  to  gain  this  was  the  ownership 
of  a  soldier-lover1.  It  prevented  the  feeling  of 
"heing  left  out."  A  new  friendliness  sprang 
up  between  the  sexes.  Advances  were  made, 
perfectly  natural,  but  quite  unusual;  and  the 
men  in  khaki  and  in  blue  found  themselves  dil- 
igently pursued,  and  it  must  be  owned  they 
liked  it. 

Thus  many  men  have  taken  girls  for  wives 
who  are  everything  they  don't  want  their  wives 
to  be.  There  is  no  fitness  of  disposition  and 
character,  no  unity  of  ideals,  no  passionate  sur- 
render of  the  Self  in  devotion,  no  fixed  purpose 
of  duty,  no  harmony  in  tastes  or  outlook. 
Such  love  must  come  to  disaster;  it  is  like  a 
damp  squib,  it  is  never  properly  alight  and 
fades  out  swiftly  in  noisy  splutters.  Then, 
when  the  first  desire  goes,  no  friend  but  an 
enemy  is  discovered. 

A  man  falls  in  love  very  readily,  and  girls 
have  used,  quite  unconsciously  sometimes,  very 
consciously  in  some  cases,  the  man's  undisci- 
plined impulses  for  his  own  subjection.  I 
need  not  recall  incidents  that  all  among  us 
must  have  witnessed.  1  do  not  wish  to  pass 


60          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

any  censure  upon  women.  The  sensualist 
within  most  of  us  is  stronger  than  we  women 
admit,  and  the  primitive  fact  forces  us  to  take 
risks,  sending  us  headlong  into  a  thousand  dan- 
gers. 

IV 

Can  we  ever  find  perfect  love?  Is  it  not  like 
exercise  of  the  body?  You  can  develop  it  to 
a  certain  point,  but  not  beyond  without  danger 
and  very  slowly  with  continued  patient  work. 
Do  we  not  need  exercise  of  the  soul?  I  do  not 
know.  Often  I  feel  I  know  nothing.  To 
some  men  and  women  it  is  all  simple  enough, 
a  woman  is  just  a  woman  and  a  man  is  a  man. 
The  trouble  begins  when  any  woman  becomes 
the  one  desired  woman  and  any  man  the  one 
desired  man. 

There  is  gain  and  development  in  this  selec- 
tive tendency  of  Love — and  yet,  if  I  am  right, 
there  is  terrible  danger  lurking  in  the  applica- 
tion of  this  egoistic  spiritual  view. 

It  is,  little  as  we  may  believe  it,  this  search 
for  personal  spiritual  happiness  that  often  so 
greatly  endangers  marriage.  Searching  al- 
ways for  this  perfect  mate,  we  must  find  a  part- 
ner corresponding  in  every  respect  to  our  ideal. 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD       61 

The  man  in  Mr.  Hardy's  novel,  "The  Well  Be- 
loved," spent  forty  years  in  trying  to  do  this, 
and  his  ultimate  failure  is  typical  of  the  expe- 
rience of  most  of  us.  Fools  and  blind,  we 
neither  understand  nor  seek  the  cause  of  our 
failure.  We  are  like  little  lost  dogs  searching 
for  a  master.  We  seek  without  ceasing  some 
pilot  passion  to  which  we  can  surrender  our 
heavy  burden  of  freedom.  The  dry-rot  de- 
struction of  this  individualistic  age  has  worm- 
eaten  into  marriage;  we  have  sought  to  drown 
pain  and  the  exhaustion  of  our  souls,  to  fill 
emptiness  with  pleasure,  to  place  the  personal 
good  in  marriage  above  the  racial  duty,  to  for- 
get responsibility,  to  arrogate  for  the  unim- 
portant Self,  and,  in  so  doing,  inevitably  we 
have  turned  away  from  essential  things. 
Can't  you  see  that  we  are  so  terribly  tired  of 
this  search  for  something  that  we  never  find? 
Our  adventures  are  the  tricks  of  the  child  to 
cloud  our  eyes  to  our  own  emptiness  and  pain. 


Marriage  is  not  a  religion  to  us:  it  is  a  sport. 

I  say  this  quite  deliberately.     I  am  sure  we 

know  better  how  to  engage  a  servant,  how  to 


62          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

buy  a  house,  how  to  set  up  in  business — how, 
indeed,  to  do  every  unimportant  thing  in  life 
better  than  we  know  how  to  choose  a  partner 
in  marriage.  We  require  a  character  with  our 
cook  or  our  butler,  we  engage  an  expert  to  test 
the  drains  of  our  house,  we  study  and  work, 
and  pass  examinations  to  prepare  ourselves  for 
business,  but  in  marriage  we  take  no  such  sen- 
sible precautions,  we  even  pride  ourselves  that 
we  do  not  take  them. 

We  speak  of  falling  in  love  and  we  do  fall. 
There  really  is  something  ludicrous  in  our  at- 
titude. We  English  are  everlasting  children 
in  an  everlasting  nursery ;  we  so  fiercely  refuse 
seriousness  towards  the  fundamental  emotions. 
The  conventions  are  sacred;  nothing  else  mat- 
ters. We  stand  for  purity,  which  means  with 
women  ignorance,  and  with  men  silence  and 
discretion. 

Men  and  women  of  our  earlier  England 
were  more  natural.  Our  novelists  then  frankly 
said  that  every  girl  looked  with  special  interest 
on  a  well-formed  man.  There  was  no  convic- 
tion marking  this  as  improper,  "the  baser  side 
of  love."  We  have  grown  more  and  more  dis- 
torted and  demagnetized  from  the  natural 
needs  of  our  nature.  We  try  to  cast  discredit 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD       63 

on  our  appetites  and  the  body.  We  have  lost 
the  old  firm  tradition  of  marriage  and  its  du- 
ties, and  we  have  succeeded  in  putting  nothing 
fixed  in  its  place. 

Now,  I  resent  the  romantic  idea  that  mar- 
riage should  be  a  hazardous  mystery — at  least 
to  the  woman.  The  more  shrewdly  girls  can 
judge  men  and  men  can  judge  girls  (not  by 
mere  talking  and  abstract  discussion  of  sex 
problems,  there  has  been  too  much  of  that  kind 
of  futility),  but  the  more  calmly  the  young 
lovers  can  find  agreement  with  each  other,  the 
more  simply  they  can  accept  the  facts  of  mar- 
riage, the  more  chance  there  will  be  of  perma- 
nency of  affection. 

The  conventions  of  to-day  are  false,  are 
bound  up  with  concealments  or  with  an  equally 
untruthful  openness.  It  does  not,  however, 
follow  from  this  that  mere  destruction  of  the 
conventions  will  be  enough;  that  everyone's 
unguided  ignorance  will  lead  to  success  and 
freedom.  The  laisscr  faire  system  is  as  false 
in  the  realm  of  marriage  as  it  is  in  industry  and 
economics.  While  equally  false,  as  I  have 
tried  to  show,  is  the  too  spiritual  view  of  mar- 
riage that  love  can  be  found  only  in  perfect 
harmony  of  character  between  the  wife  and  the 


64          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

husband,  and  is  independent  of  duty.  It  is 
true  that  love  differs  from  lust  in  its  deeper 
insight  into  the  personality,  deeper  interest  in 
the  character,  as  opposed  to  the  inexpres- 
sive smooth  outline  and  "unbrained"  physical 
beauty  of  the  body.  But  character  and  intel- 
lect may  be  studied  and  loved  as  self-cen- 
teredly,  as  much  with  a  view  to  the  enjoyment 
of  mental  excitement,  as  the  body  itself.  A 
wider  distinction  must  be  drawn  before  we  can 
find  guidance. 

VI 

Let  us  look  now  at  a  different,  older  and,  as 
I  think,  much  finer  ideal  of  marriage,  for  by 
this  means  we  may  find  out  more  clearly  how 
very  far  we  have  wandered  from  happiness  and 
freedom  in  marriage  in  our  search  for  those 
very  things. 

It  is  the  Jewish  ideal  of  marriage  that  I  wish 
to  bring  before  you.  And  I  would  say  first 
that  the  remarks  I  am  offering  are  not  gath- 
ered only  from  what  I  have  read  and  been  told 
by  others.  I  have  learnt  them  from  my  own 
experience,  unconsciously  and  slowly,  and  even 
against  my  will.  My  marriage  with  a  Jew  has 
taught  me  the  wide  separation  between  the 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      65 

Jewish  ideal  of  marriage  and  that  which  I  had 
accepted :  I  cannot  even  try  to  say  how  much 
I  have  gained  and  learnt. 

The  English  ideal  of  marriage  is  concerned 
with  rights  and  the  individual,  the  Jewish  ideal 
is  concerned  with  service  and  the  race.  Their 
theory  of  marriage  is  one  of  religious  duty,  and 
has  much  less  to  do  with  the  accomplishments 
of  passion;  I  think  that  is  why  Jewish  mar- 
riages are  so  happy. 

Modern  writers  on  the  Jewish  point  of  view 
(such  as  Achad-ha-Am  and  Melamed)  are 
agreed  that  the  morality  of  the  Jews  is  a  collec- 
tive rather  than  an  individual  morality,  aiming 
at  race  preservation  rather  than  individual  de- 
velopment, practice  rather  than  faith,  the  con- 
tinuance and  improvement  of  life  rather  than 
spiritual  recompense.  Consequently,  wher- 
ever Jewish  traditions  retain  their  hold,  the  be- 
getting and  care  of  children  must  necessarily 
occupy  the  most  important  portion  of  life. 
Thus  marriage  is  regarded  as  a  duty  to  he  un- 
dertaken by  all,  not  as  a  pleasure  to  be  in- 
dulged in  or  to  be  left  dependent  on  the  indi- 
vidual will.  It  is  a  sacred  duty  of  parents  to 
arrange  a  marriage  for  every  child;  marriage 
and  the  life  of  the  home  is  still  deeply  religious; 


66          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Jewish  mothers  do  not  go  out  to  work  in  fac- 
tories, they  are  more  concerned  with  the  service 
of  the  home  than  with  anything  outside  of  the 
home.  They  are  very  old-fashioned,  and  they 
are  very  happy:  they  consider  barrenness  the 
greatest  possible  misfortune. 

Do  you  see  the  contrast  I  am  trying  to  estab- 
lish? The  essence  of  the  romantic  ideal  of 
marriage  is  at  bottom  an  insupportable  ego- 
ism— the  seeking  of  happiness  by  the  all  too 
insistent  Self — the  forgetting  of  the  ultimate 
values  of  life. 

There  are  other  modes  of  thought  for  Jewish 
women.  The  expression  of  her  own  individu- 
ality is  not  a  matter  to  which  she  can  attach  su- 
preme importance;  rather  is  she  unconsciously 
finding  an  escape  from  this  burdening  con- 
sciousness of  individuality  by  ever  seeking 
identification  with  her  husband,  with  her  chil- 
dren, with  her  home,  with  her  own  people  and 
with  God.  She  possesses  the  inestimable  good 
of  being  bound  by  a  great  tradition.  It  is  ever 
thus  with  those  who  are  conscious  of  a  sufficient 
inner  life:  the  modern  cry  for  individual  free- 
dom is  but  one  result  among  many  of  the  pov- 
erty of  our  lives. 

The  Westernized  Jews,  it  is  true,  are  more 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      67 

or  less  tainted  with  the  errors  of  industrial  com- 
munities. It  is,  of  course,  where  the  early 
marriages  of  the  ghettoes  prevail,  where  the 
married  woman  religiously  covers  her  own  hair 
with  a  wig  immediately  after  marriage,  where 
marriage,  as  I  have  said,  is  regarded  as  a  duty, 
and  love,  therefore,  is  not  considered  to  be  of 
overwhelming  importance,  that  the  full  differ- 
ence between  Jewish  and  Gentile  traditions  is 
seen. 

This  difference  is  partly  due  directly  to  re- 
ligious influences.  Christianity  considers  mar- 
riage as  a  concession  to  human  wickedness  and 
the  continuance  of  the  race  a  doubtful  benefit. 
"A  remedy  for  sin"  as  the  English  Prayer 
Book  states  with  such  delightful  frankness. 
When  I  remember  this  Christian  view  of  mar- 
riage, I  am  not  surprised  at  the  corruptions 
into  which  we  have  fallen;  it  is  an  atmos- 
phere rich  for  the  development  of  industrial 
values.  The  Jews  have  never  fallen  into  this 
hateful  denial  of  life.  Judaism  still  considers 
it  a  command  of  God  to  increase  and  multiply: 
the  unmarried  life,  not  the  married  life,  is  re- 
garded as  sinful.  The  ascetic  view  of  mar- 
riage, as  well  as  the  romantic  view  that  love  is 
everything,  are  both  anti-Jewish. 


68          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

The  Jews,  and,  I  think,  even  more  strongly 
the  women,  can  never  be  individualists.  I 
must  again  emphasize  this  fact,  for  everything 
else  depends  upon  it.  Never  can  the  Jewish 
wife  and  mother  come  to  seek  personal  pleas- 
ure as  the  chief  aim  in  marriage,  or  delight 
greatly  in  expressing  her  own  individuality  in 
spiritual  union.  She  is  not  absorbed  by  her 
own  joy  or  engrossed  by  her  own  sorrow.  She 
is  content  to  be  married,  and  accepts  any  disad- 
vantages that  come  from  that  state ;  she  believes 
in  her  husband,  in  her  children,  and  even  if 
these  fail  her,  she  believes  in  her  race,  her  re- 
ligion, and  the  inheritance  of  her  people:  this 
gives  her  a  center  of  gravity  outside  of  herself. 
For  thousands  of  years  Jewish  women  have 
been  taught  the  value  of  service ;  the  dedication 
of  the  Self  to  an  ideal.  At  the  same  time,  they 
have  been  held  firm  to  the  realities  of  marriage 
by  their  worship.  These  two  influences  will,  I 
believe,  forever  make  it  impossible  for  Jewish 
women  in  any  numbers  to  accept  the  egoistic 
view  of  marriage  and  the  duties  of  women  that 
has  been  set  up  in  England,  as  also  in  other 
European  lands  and  in  America,  indeed  wher- 
ever Self-assertion  has  been  admitted  as  the 
ruling  principle  of  life. 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      69 

For  these  reasons  the  Jewess,  with  her  spe- 
cial attitude  toward  marriage  and  to  life,  offers 
a  picture  of  the  deepest  significance  for  the 
study  of  all  industrial  races.  That  is  why  I 
turn  to  her  in  the  hope  of  making  plain  to  us 
Western  women  our  mistakes.  She,  in  my 
opinion,  can  show  us  the  path  wherein  alone  in 
future  we  can  find  happiness. 

The  Jewish  women  have  inherited  the  most 
perfect  feminist  ideal  that  as  yet  the  world 
has  known ;  an  ideal  of  service  within  the  home 
of  which  full  life  she  is  the  high-priestess;  an 
ideal  turning  to  foolishness  the  false  values  of 
this  industrial  age.  And  this  ideal  of  service, 
shared  by  all,  gives  to  the  most  unlearned  Jew- 
ish woman  the  priceless  knowledge  of  an  eter- 
nal truth :  a  truth  that  has  to  be  learnt  by  each 
one  among  us  before  we  can  find  happiness— 
that  only  by  losing  ourselves  can  we  find  the 
Self  that  is  eternal.  The  Jewish  woman  learns 
this  truth  by  living  it. 

The  deep  reasons  of  life  lie  beyond  the  realm 
of  individual  advantage.  The  Jewish  spirit, 
pursuing  its  ends  deliberately  and  wisely,  de- 
mands of  women  and  of  men  two  different  de- 
votions. It  asks  of  women  devotion  to  men, 
to  their  children,  to  their  homes;  of  men,  devo- 


70          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tion  to  ideals.  Jewish  women  do  not  wait  to 
ask  if  men  are  worthy,  their  thought  is  of  serv- 
ice. They  understand  that  in  each  devotion 
lies  an  equal  glory,  an  equal  joy,  and  an  equal 
honor  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  man. 

There  is  so  much  more  I  would  like  to  say. 
I  would  wish  to  show  you  something  at  least  of 
the  success  with  which  religion  among  the  Jews 
has  been  turned  to  domestic  uses.  No  detail  of 
the  home  life  is  left  unhallowed.  Even  the 
poorest  Jewish  home  is  saved  by  its  cere- 
monies from  the  degrading  indifference  to  de- 
cency and  tenderness,  which  is  the  terrible 
feature  of  the  industrial  homes  of  poverty. 
The  sanctity  of  the  home  is  an  affectionate  tra- 
dition linking  the  Jews  through  the  ages  with 
a  golden  chain.  The  purity  of  home  life  has 
fought  and  triumphed  over  all  the  unsanitary 
conditions  of  ghetto  life. 

I  wish  that  the  limits  of  my  space  allowed 
me  to  write  in  detail  of  these  beautiful  and 
happy  services.  The  lighting  of  the  Sabbath 
candles,  the  joyous  festivals  so  attractive  to  our 
children,  all  are  used  to  consecrate  the  daily 
life.  The  dietary  laws  may  be  said  to  be  a  re- 
ligion of  the  kitchen.  The  description  of  the 
Virtuous  Woman,  from  the  book  of  Prov- 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD       71 

erbs — the  woman  who  "looks  well  to  the  ways 
of  her  household,"  whose  clothing  are  "strength 
and  majesty,"  who  "laugheth  at  the  time  to 
come" — is  appropriately  read  on  Friday  even- 
ings by  the  master  of  the  house  to  exalt  the  per- 
petual provident,  charitable  and  joyous  house- 
mistress.  A  true  Jewish  home  must  always  be 
a  beautiful  place,  because  its  duties  are  fixed 
by  tradition  and  hallowed,  by  the  symbols  of 
God's  dealing  with  His  people  in  the  past. 

Abundant  evidence  is  forthcoming  of  the 
honor  that  was  always  paid  by  the  Jewish  hus- 
band to  his  wife.  His  duties  toward  her  are 
set  forth  in  detail  in  the  usual  form  of  the  Ke- 
tubah.  In  the  body  of  that  instrument  he 
binds  himself  to  work  for  her,  and  to  honor  her, 
to  support  and  maintain  her.  The  Talmudic 
sayings  on  this  subject  of  the  honor  in  which 
the  wife  is  held  and  the  husband's  dependence 
on  her  are  numerous  Let  me  quote  one  or  two : 
"Who  is  rich?  He  whose  wife's  actions  are 
comely.  Who  is  happy?  He  whose  wife  is 
modest  and  gentle."  Again:  "A  man's  hap- 
piness is  all  of  his  wife's  creation";  and  yet 
again:  "God's  presence  dwells  in  a  pure  and 
loving  home."  "Be  not  cruel  or  discourteous 
to  your  wife,"  said  a  first  century  teacher,  "if 


72 

you  thrust  her  from  you  with  your  left  hand, 
draw  her  back  to  you  with  your  right  hand." 
Another  says :  "A  man  should  always  be  care- 
ful lest  he  vex  his  wife:  for  as  her  tears  come 
easily,  the  vexation  put  upon  her  comes  near  to 
God."  A  seventeenth  century  writer  states: 
''Never  quarrel  with  your  wife";  this  is  not  to 
be  done  even  "if  she  asks  for  too  much  money." 

Such  passages  extend  in  an  unbroken  series 
through  all  medieval  Jewish  literature.  But  if 
the  Jewish  wife  was  held  in  honor  by  the  Jew- 
ish husband,  it  was  because  of  the  very  practi- 
cal virtues  of  the  Jewish  way  of  living.  The 
home  life  was  everywhere  serene  and  lovely, 
and  if  the  Jew  retained  any  virtue  at  all,  he 
displayed  it  in  the  home.  The  father  was  the 
religious  teacher  of  his  family,  and  this  duty 
necessarily  increased  his  domesticity.  He  took 
greater  interest  in  his  children  because  it  was 
his  task  to  teach  them  the  law,  and  his  devotion 
to  his  wife  was  directly  dependent  on  his  serv- 
ice to  the  family.  One  of  the  Rabbis,  on  this 
question  of  the  Jewish  husband  ill-treating  his 
wife,  said  in  framing  his  regulations  "This  is 
a  thing  not  done  in  Israel." 

I  would  ask  you  to  note  that  the  woman  does 
not  become  a  nonentity  by  reason  of  her  limi- 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      73 

tation  to  a  definite  sphere  of  action  within  the 
home.  Such  a  view  is  entirely  absent  among 
the  Jews.  The  rule  over  the  home-life  held 
through  the  centuries  by  the  Jewish  wife  is  far 
more  real  in  its  results  of  power  than  the  so- 
called  equality  claimed  by  a  modern  woman, 
acting  under  the  influence  of  industrial  ideals. 
What  is  significant  (and  ought  to  teach  us  if 
we  can  be  taught)  is  the  fact  that  such  power  is 
held  by  women  in  right  of  their  position  as 
wives  and  mothers;  it  is  never  extended  to 
young  girls  or  to  unmarried  women  on  account 
of  their  attraction  and  sexual  power  over  men, 
in  the  way  to  which  we  have  become  accus- 
tomed. That  is  unknown,  at  least,  in  connec- 
tion with  marriage.  The  Jew  understands 
that  there  are  other  ways  of  loving  than  falling 
in  love.  Power  is  held  universally  by  the  house 
mistress — the  mother,  whose  desires  through 
life  are  a  law  unto  her  husband  and  her  chil- 
dren. 

All  Jewish  literature  is  filled  with  examples 
of  reverence  expressed  towards  mothers  who 
are  "the  teachers  of  all  virtue."  In  the  moral 
law  the  command  to  fear  the  mother — that  is  to 
treat  her  with  respect,  is  placed  even  before  the 
duty  of  fearing  the  father  (Lev.  xix.  3) .  En- 


74          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

during  evidence  remains  of  the  spiritual  status 
of  mothers.  When  the  Prophet  of  Exiles 
wishes  to  depict  God  as  the  Comforter  of  his 
people,  he  says  "As  one  whom  his  mother  com- 
forteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you"  (Is.  Ixvi.  13). 
When  the  Psalmist  describes  his  utter  woe,  he 
laments,  "As  one  mourning  for  his  mother,  I 
was  bowed  down  with  grief." 

Perhaps,  now  as  we  see  the  mother  taken  as 
the  one  sufficient  symbol  of  Jehovah's  dealing 
with  his  people,  the  mourning  for  her  presence 
being  the  completest  expression  of  grief,  we 
can  come  to  understand  something  of  the  Jew- 
ish ideal  of  marriage  and  of  the  high  honor, 
because  of  this  ideal,  in  which  women  were 
held. 

VII 

It  should  be  plain  enough  now  why  English 
marriages  so  often  are  unhappy.  The  im- 
mense failure  of  marriage  to-day  arises  from 
the  confusion  of  our  minds  and  our  chaotic  de- 
sires so  that  we  have  no  firm  ideal,  no  fixed 
standard  of  conduct  either  for  the  wife  or  for 
the  husband.  Every  couple  starts  anew  and 
alone,  and  the  way  is  too  difficult  for  solitary 
experiments. 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      75 

The  existence  of  many  standards,  of  what 
ought  to  be  done  and  what  ought  not  to  be 
done,  the  liberty  permitted  to  the  husband,  the 
liberty  permitted  to  the  wife,  if  the  wife  shall 
continue  her  work  or  profession  or  remain  at 
home  dependent  on  the  husband's  earnings, 
whether  the  marriage  shall  be  fruitful  or  ster- 
ile— these  are  but  a  few  of  the  questions  left 
undecided.  And  thus  to  leave  unguided  each 
wife  and  each  husband,  with  their  own  idea  of 
what  is  good  to  do  and  what  is  evil,  makes  for 
narrowness  and  waste  of  effort;  while  further, 
our  inability  to  set  up  a  standard  of  right  and 
wrong  conduct — of  ideals  to  strive  after — 
leaves  vacant  room  for  false  ideals  of  every 
kind.  These  empty  places  of  the  mind  have 
been  occupied  by  the  ravings  of  advanced  peo- 
ple. The  harm  has  been  incredibly  active  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  young.  We  have  put 
before  their  imagination  nothing  worthy  of 
contemplation,  therefore  they  easily  sink  down- 
ward attracted  by  what  is  base. 

Then  we  suggest  economic  changes.  But 
the  evil  is  not  economic.  No  evils  are  funda- 
mentally economic.  The  structure  of  society 
is  the  unforeseen  result  of  the  conflicting  de- 
sires and  capacities  of  the  individuals  who  com- 


76         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

prise  the  society.  A  false  view  of  marriage,  a 
false  view  of  the  relative  values  of  life  and 
money,  of  service  and  liberty,  of  happiness  and 
duty,  is  not  dependent  on  economic  conditions. 
Yet,  let  us  not  forget  that  this  is  the  age  of  the 
gadding  mind  and  the  grabbing  hand.  We 
tend  to  value  everything  by  what  it  brings  in  to 
us,  in  feelings  if  not  in  more  tangible  results. 

You  will  see  what  this  must  mean.  I  am 
brought  back  to  our  wrong  ideals;  I  have  no 
new  remedy  to  give;  I  can  only  again  insist 
upon  this  truth:  A  preoccupation  with  a  de- 
sire for  love  does  not,  and  never  can,  result  in 
happiness.  But  the  personal  (or  perhaps  my 
meaning  will  be  clearer  by  saying  the  egoistic) 
view  of  love  has  assumed  such  gigantic  propor- 
tion in  our  minds  to-day  that  we  accept  these 
selfish  desires  as  a  safe  basis  for  permanent 
happiness.  Marriage  lias  ceased  to  be  a  disci- 
pline: it  has  become  an  experiment. 

The  romantic  view  of  love  as  the  basis  of 
marriage  is,  of  course,  the  essence  of  the  Eng- 
lish habit  of  life;  as  we  have  seen,  it  focuses  de- 
sire on  personal  adventures  and  personal  needs. 
Romance  necessarily  leads  to  license,  and  not 
license  of  the  body  alone  finding  expression  in 
more  or  less  gross  immoralities,  for  there  is  a 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      77 

spiritual  license  far  more  dangerous  because  so 
much  more  seductive.  Appetite  for  adven- 
ture, for  an  excitement  that  is  mainly  mental 
is  a  condition  that  is  quite  as  dangerous  to  mar- 
riage and  much  more  common  than  the  un- 
faithfulness that  leads  to  the  divorce  courts. 

I  would  appeal  to  the  young,  to  each  young 
girl,  who  to-day  is  questioning  the  future. 
Many  of  you  have  passed  through  a  supremely 
heroic  period  of  your  lives;  now  you  are  wait- 
ing. You  want  to  do  right,  and  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult, for  everyone  seems  to  be  at  a  loose  end 
of  desire.  Perhaps  some  among  you  will  ask 
me:  "What  can  I  do?"  My  answer  is  this: 
Fix  your  ideal.  Do  not  make  the  child's  mis- 
take and  think  that  the  desirable  thing  is  to  do 
just  what  you  like.  You  can  never  find  free- 
dom or  happiness  in  that  way.  Hold  firm  in 
your  hearts  that  no  gain  of  personal  liberty 
counts  as  happiness  to  women.  Treasure  your 
womanly  qualities — your  sweetness,  your  gen- 
tleness, your  shyness,  your  unlimited  capacity 
for  devotion,  guard  these  as  your  greatest  pos- 
session. Do  not  acknowledge  your  poverty 
by  failing  to  honor  yourself.  Be  the  establish- 
ers  of  a  revived  feminist  idealism,  the  founders 
of  a  new  tradition  of  womanly  service.  It  is 


78          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

for  you  to  fix  the  type  that  will  one  day  give 
woman  her  real  freedom ;  one  day — but  not  yet. 

In  these  times  of  uncertainty  there  is  great 
danger.  Every  woman  should  be  asked  at  the 
moment  to  believe  in  simple  things;  in  her 
home,  her  children,  her  husband,  and  her  coun- 
try. The  only  hope  is  in  unity,  and  for  unity 
you  must  have  discipline,  and  for  discipline, 
for  the  present,  at  least,  you  must  accept 
authority.  Much,  incalculably  much,  depends 
upon  the  young.  The  generation  to  which  I 
belong  is  passing,  we  have  to  hand  on  to  you 
who  are  younger  the  torch  of  life. 

With  more  courage  to  face  truth,  you  should 
have  a  surer  ideal  than  we  have  found.  When 
this  comes,  there  will  be  less  sentimentality  but 
much  deeper  feeling  about  marriage.  I  have 
tried  to  show  you  a  different  ideal,  and  picture 
for  you  the  Jewish  home,  where  the  exalted  es- 
teem in  which  women  are  held  is  the  outcome  of 
their  attitude  to  marriage  and  the  Jewish  way 
of  life :  it  is  an  ideal  that  depends  directly  upon 
duty  and  a  religious  view  of  marriage. 

To-day  we  need  a  new  consciousness  of  our 
social  and  racial  responsibilities,  the  idea  of 
handing  down  at  least  as  much  as  we  have  re- 
ceived. Let  the  young  women  of  England 


THE  COVENANT  OF  GOD      79 

learn  as  a  great  new  faith  that  the  sons  and 
daughters  they  bear  are  not  their  children  and 
the  children  of  their  husbands  only,  but  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  England — the  inheritors 
of  all  the  fine  traditions  of  our  race.  Let  us 
spread  the  new  romance  of  Love's  responsibil- 
ity to  Life;  let  us  honor  ideals  of  self-dedica- 
tion to  our  husbands,  understanding  their  de- 
pendence upon  us,  to  our  homes,  to  our  sons 
and  our  daughters,  to  our  race,  its  great  ones 
and  their  deeds;  our  moral  obligations  to  all 
children  even  before  they  are  born. 

It  is  women,  and  they  alone,  who  can  save 
marriage;  they  hold  all  life  in  their  hands. 
Never  before  in  the  world  has  the  opportunity 
been  so  vast;  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  find  one- 
self among  realities.  To  you,  who  to-day  are 
young,  negligence  no  longer  is  possible.  Lis- 
ten to  what  I  tell  you:  those  heroes  who  have 
died  for  this  England  of  ours  cry  to  you  for 
children  to  hold  their  memories  and  make  their 
lives  everlasting. 

Let  us  take  seriously  what  the  politicians 
have  said  without  meaning  it:  let  us  make  an 
England  fit  for  heroes  to  be  born  in,  able  to 
mold  a  character  of  heroism  in  each  of  its 
children:  not,  as  at  present,  an  England  so 


80         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tainted  with  mean  self-assertion  that  the  dedi- 
cation of  a  wife  to  her  husband,  of  a  mother  to 
her  children,  counts  as  a  sacrifice  of  her  person- 
ality.1 

i  In  order  to  guard  myself  from  possible  misunderstanding, 
I  would  wish  to  give  the  following  explanation:  the  chief  sec- 
tion of  this  essay  on  Marriage  is  devoted  to  praise  of  the 
Jewish  ideal  of  marriage  as  a  religious  duty.  It  does  not 
profess  to  examine  the  detailed  working  out  of  the  ideal  in  con- 
nection with  the  definite  regulations  of  traditional  Judaism. 
That  working  out  is,  naturally,  to  the  modern  mind  more  or 
less  faulty.  It  is  as  an  ideal  that  I  give  it:  an  ideal  of  service 
and  dedication  that  I  want  to  be  carried  into  English  mar- 
riage, and  to  serve  the  needs  of  our  national  life.  I  would, 
however,  make  it  clear  that  the  detailed  proposals  put  forward 
by  me  in  the  essays  that  follow  have  no  connection  with  Juda- 
ism: no  one  of  them  could  possibly  be  considered  to  have  any 
such  connection,  except  the  proposal  for  facilitated  divorce: 
but  my  proposal  in  that  particular  connection  (as  will  be  seen 
in  the  next  essay)  is  hedged  by  restrictions,  suggested  by 
present-day  circumstances. 


Third  Essay 
THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING: 

A   CHAPTER   WHICH   ADVOCATES 
FREE    DIVORCE 

"That  which  is  crooked  cannot  be  made  straight:  and 
that  which  is  wanting  cannot  be  numbered." — Ecc.  i.  15, 


I  AM  well  aware  that  there  will  be  many 
among  my  readers  who,  having  gone  so  far  in 
my  book  and  agreed  more  or  less  with  my  point 
of  view,  must  here  fall  into  disagreement  with 
me.  This  essay  upholding  free  divorce,  and 
the  three  that  follow,  the  first  one  recommend- 
ing regulation  and  firm  action  in  suppressing 
prostitution  as  the  only  way  to  stay  the  spread 
of  venereal  diseases;  the  second  essay  on  the 
illegitimately  born  child,  where  I  differ  in  one 
important  matter  from  the  accepted  view  of 
what  is  chiefly  needed  to  protect  these  unhappy 
children ;  and,  even  more,  the  proposal  1  make 

81 


82         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

in  the  last  essay,  where  I  plead  for  an  open 
recognition  of  honorable  sexual  partnerships 
outside  of  marriage — this  half  of  my  book  will 
be  disapproved  of,  very  probably  disliked,  and 
my  views  more  or  less  violently  disputed.  It 
will  be  said  that  what  I  advocate  now  is  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  my  ideal  of  marriage  being 
a  religious  duty,  which  demands  the  consecra- 
tion of  women  to  the  service  of  the  family  and 
the  home.  This,  however,  is  not  so:  if  I  have 
been  understood  at  all,  it  should  be  evident  that 
the  opposition  is  not  there. 

I  care  little  for  our  existing  and  chaotic 
forms  of  morality;  what  I  desire  is  to  create  a 
new  reality,  the  value  of  which  consists  in  that 
it  provides  wider  possibilities  of  decent  and 
honorable  conduct.  We  have  to  brave  moral 
danger  in  trying  to  attain  a  higher  moral  real- 
ity. To  me  what  seems  the  first  necessity  is  to 
face  things  as  they  are,  and  not  to  go  on  eter- 
nally pretending  that  our  world  is  what  it  is 
not. 

Our  vague-minded  lax  society  has  to  pull 
itself  together,  has  to  reconsider  and  adminis- 
ter and  formulate  a  more  helpful  system  of 
regulations;  has  to  learn  to  express  again  its 
united  will  in  some  better  way  than  "go  as  you 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING     83 

please,"  or  fail.  What  is  wanted  is  a  new  hon- 
esty to  create  standards  of  conduct,  which  will 
fix  the  every  day  indispensable  duties,  that, 
after  all,  make  up  the  total  of  life.  We  have 
but  a  choice  between  the  danger  of  falling 
deeper  into  confusion  and  dishonesty  or  the 
danger  of  awakening  to  a  clearer  and  more  dif- 
ficult consciousness.  Now,  I  do  not  believe  it 
is  moral  to  regulate  life  by  fear,  considering 
only  the  desire  to  remain  undisturbed  of  those 
who  are  decayed  and  petrified.  I  do  not  know 
if  I  make  my  meaning  clear.  As  our  habit,  we 
ignore  or  minimize  all  sex  difficulties  as  much 
as  we  can;  we  hesitate  and  compromise  and 
bungle  over  every  reform  because  we  are  afraid 
of  what  may  happen  if  we  probe  down  to  the 
real  bottom  of  what  needs  to  be  done.  We 
have  neither  the  courage  of  our  bodies  or  of  our 
souls.  This  is  why  so  often  our  attitude  be- 
comes false  and  our  thoughts  entangled,  so 
that  our  moral  life  is  corrupt  with  conceal- 
ments and  deceptions.  Now,  I  am  not  content 
with  the  compromise  which  sanctions  every 
form  of  sexual  sin  so  long  as  the  conventions 
are  respected  and  the  sin  hidden — all  the  rot- 
tenness going  on  beneath  the  respectable  struc- 
ture of  our  society.  I  want  as  far  as  is  possi- 


84         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

ble  to  emancipate  our  lives  from  such  slavery; 
to  make  less  easy  the  hypocrisy  which  law  and 
custom  sanction ;  to  gain  freedom  from  a  sham 
morality  and  the  pretense  of  a  righteousness 
that  we  do  not  maintain.  It  is  a  necessary 
step,  for  me  at  least,  on  the  way  to  any  kind  of 
improvement.  More  and  more  I  am  con- 
vinced that  we  shall  have  to  make  a  violent  and 
very  conscious  effort  to  get  clear  of  dishonesty. 

That  is  why  I  am  advocating,  as  a  first  most 
necessary  reform,  simpler  and  more  decent  fa- 
cilities of  divorce.  I  plead  for  a  greater 
breadth  of  toleration,  with  a  more  honest  facing 
of  the  facts,  because  I  have  known  in  my  ex- 
perience the  degradation,  the  falsity  and  the 
absurdities  that  are  going  on  to-day ;  the  decep- 
tions into  which  everyone  is  driven  who  is  un- 
fortunate enough  to  have  to  seek  relief,  under 
the  present  disgraceful  divorce  laws,  from  a 
marriage  that  has  failed.  There  are  con- 
ditions which  degrade  and  embitter  and  make 
honorable  conduct  very  difficult. 

A  great  number  of  people,  regarding  mar- 
riage as  a  mystical  and,  therefore,  unbreakable 
sacrament,  object  to  divorce  under  any  circum- 
stances whatever.  This  is  the  case  in  Catholic 
countries,  such,  for  instance,  as  Spain,  the  land 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING     85 

I  know  and  love  so  well.  Such  an  attitude  I 
can  understand  and  respect,  though  I  do  not 
consider  it  a  practical  proposition,  and  know, 
moreover,  that  indissoluble  marriage,  in  some 
ways,  works  very  harmfully.  It  prevents 
hasty  marriage.  In  Spain  marriage  is  re- 
garded as  the  gravest  and  most  momentous 
step  in  life;  but  this  caution  does  not  alto- 
gether work  out  for  good  in  the  way  one  might 
expect. 

I  recall  a  conversation  with  a  Spanish  friend 
on  this  question.  We  were  speaking  of  the 
great  numbers  of  young  Spaniards  who  did  not 
marry.  I  asked  my  friend  the  reason  of  this. 
He  answered:  "You  see  we  have  no  divorce 
in  this  land  as  you  have  in  England,  that  makes 
us  afraid  now  we  have  begun  to  think,  we  hes- 
itate and  hesitate,  then  we  take  a  mistress  while 
we  are  deciding,  but  it  is  easier  and  less  bind- 
ing to  live  like  that,  and  we  keep  going  on  and 
put  off  marrying,  sometimes  put  it  off  until  it 
is  too  late."  In  Spain  the  illegitimate  birth- 
rate is  the  highest  of  any  country  in  Europe. 

We  must  accept,  then,  that  indissoluble  mar- 
riage fails  in  practice,  and  the  society  which 
enforces  it  commits  self-injury  by  setting  up  a 
standard  of  conduct  impossible  to  maintain; 


86          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

and  further,  one  that  acts  in  deterring  the  more 
thoughtful  from  marriage  and  leaves  the  pro- 
tected institution  to  the  more  reckless,  who  do 
not  consider  consequences. 

Now,  when  once  we  do  accept  this,  admit  the 
principle  of  divorce  and  acknowledge  that  in 
certain  circumstances  the  bond  of  marriage 
may  be  severed,  at  once  the  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion changes:  it  becomes  a  matter  of  practical 
adjustment,  so  that  what  is  needed  is  decision 
and  regulation  of  the  conditions  under  which 
divorce  should  be  allowed,  so  that  they  may 
meet  best  the  needs  of  men  and  women  in  the 
society  and,  at  the  time,  in  which  they  live.  I 
am  very  anxious  to  show  the  difference  between 
the  practical  and  the  conventional  attitude  to- 
ward this  problem.  It  is  to  be  wished  that 
this  question  of  divorce  could  be  approached 
free  from  the  falseness  of  the  old  prejudices  of 
religious  intolerance  and  of  sentimentality. 

The  great  and  pressing  need  of  reform  is 
being  widely  discussed  at  the  present  time.  I 
note  with  a  mixture  of  amazement  and  fear 
that  practically  in  every  argument  the  opinion 
universally  held  appears  to  be  that  the  relief 
given  should  be  as  limited  as  possible ;  it  is  still 
being  taken  for  granted  that  free  divorce  in  this 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    87 

country  is  neither  attainable  nor  desirable,  and, 
indeed,  that  any  extension  of  the  grounds  of 
divorce  would  act  against  the  sanctity  of  mar- 
riage. I  say  I  note  this  attitude  with  fear,  be- 
cause it  seems  to  me  that  the  triumph  of  preju- 
dice and  ignorance  here  is  a  most  serious  symp- 
tom of  the  degradation  of  our  moral  outlook 
and  the  poverty  of  our  faith  in  the  institution 
of  marriage. 

"Divorce  is  relief  from  misfortune,  not  a 
crime,"  to  quote  from  the  admirable  statute 
book  of  Norway,  a  saying  which  should  be  one 
of  universal  application  in  divorce.  And  this 
relief  must  be  granted,  not  merely  as  an  act  of 
justice  to  the  individual;  it  is  called  for  equally 
in  the  interests  of  society. 

The  moral  code  of  any  society  ought  to  meet 
the  needs  of  its  members.  But  the  needs 
change  as  time  goes  on,  and  moral  codes  must 
then  also  change  or  they  become  worn-out  and 
useless.  That  society  which  is  unwilling  to 
modify  its  laws  to  fit  new  conditions  drives  its 
members  into  defiance  of  the  law  and  acts  di- 
rectly as  a  cause  of  immorality.  It  were  well 
to  remember  this  as  we  come  to  question  our 
laws  of  divorce.  There  can  be  no  possible 
doubt  that  as  the  law  stands  at  present  it  does 


88          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

not  meet  the  needs  of  those  people  who  claim 
its  relief;  while  further,  the  most  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  situation  proves  how  harm- 
fully and  immorally  the  law  acts. 

II 

It  is,  of  course,  very  much  better  that  mar- 
riage should  be  as  permanent  as  possible,  and 
any  society  is  obviously  justified  in  bringing 
any  moral  pressure  to  bear  to  make  people 
realize  the  seriousness  of  the  relationship  and 
the  importance  of  keeping  it  permanent  when 
possible.  But  it  is  certainly  no  part  of  the 
right  or  duty  of  society  to  use  force  to  compel 
people  to  remain  in  the  marriage  relationship, 
when  it  becomes  so  repugnant  to  them  that  the 
conditions  of  the  marriage  cannot  be  continued. 
All  that  society  has  the  right  then  to  demand 
is  that  all  the  obligations  which  have  been  as- 
sumed shall  be  honorably  fulfilled.  But  a  re- 
lationship registered  in  mistake  or  under  delu- 
sion should  be  subject  to  revision,  and,  with 
certain  safeguards,  to  dissolution,  otherwise 
the  standard  of  morality  is  degraded  and  mar- 
riage itself  is  brought  to  contempt,  and  can  be 
used,  as  indeed  too  often  it  is,  as  a  cloak  of  pro- 
tection for  every  kind  of  immorality. 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    89 

But  it  is  just  here  that  the  religious  objector 
to  divorce-reform  steps  in.  Marriage,  he  de- 
clares, is  not  only  a  social  institution,  it  is  a 
sacrament  of  the  Church,  "Those  whom  God 
has  joined  together  no  man  may  put  asunder," 
therefore  divorce  must  be  made  as  difficult  as 
possible.  As  I  have  said  before,  I  can  respect 
the  view  that  rejects  divorce  and  regards  the 
marriage  bond  as  indissoluble,  but  I  can  have 
nothing  but  contempt  for  this  attitude  of  weak 
and  shuffling  compromise.  Much  has  been 
said  on  the  matter,  therefore  I  say  little.  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  urge  the  causes  for  which 
divorce  should,  or  should  not,  be  granted;  for, 
as  will  appear  directly,  I  want  a  much  simpler 
and  more  radical  reform :  also  I  hold  it  folly  to 
try  to  convince  the  self-blinded.  I  only  ask 
the  reader  to  make  sure  that  he  (or  perhaps 
more  probably  she)  really  believes  that  the 
partners  in  the  marriages  that  come  to  the  di- 
vorce courts  were  joined  by  God,  and  is  willing 
to  follow  the  argument  to  its  logical  conclusion. 
Are  they  willing,  for  instance,  to  say  that  a 
woman  or  a  man  may  not  put  aside  the  mar- 
riage if  one  of  the  two  is  a  lunatic,  or  a  hope- 
less drunkard,  or  an  habitual  criminal,  or  a  de- 
generate, or  the  victim  of  a  disease  which  can 


90         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

be  communicated  to  the  offspring?  Are  they 
willing  to  go  with  our  ecclesiastical  advisers, 
who  seek  to  maintain  marriages,  which  may  be 
the  cause  of  perpetuating  disease  and  crime; 
the  bringing  into  the  world  of  the  children  of 
drunkards,  of  epileptics,  of  syphilitics  and  of 
lunatics  ? 

Stop  a  moment  and  think  what  this  must 
mean  to  the  society  in  which  we  live.  Can  it 
be  considered  seriously  that  the  continuance  of 
marriage  in  such  cases  as  these  can  by  any  jug- 
gling be  made  right — anything  except  the  most 
blind-eyed  folly  and  sin? 

Ill 

Consider  now  the  position  to-day.  Amaz- 
ing marriages  have  been  made  under  the  ur- 
gency of  war  conditions,  reckless  marriages, 
entered  into  by  those  who  have  known  each 
other  for  a  few  days  only  before  marrying  for 
life.  A  minister  of  religion  stated  quite  re- 
cently, "I  have  had  to  marry  many  couples  who 
admitted  to  me  that  they  knew  little  about  each 
other.  I  could  do  nothing.  I  was  not  al- 
lowed to  refuse  marriage." 

There  is  no  excuse  now  for  these  criminally 
hasty  marriages;  that  they  should  have  been 


made  is  one  of  the  tragedies  caused  by  war. 
It  would  prevent  endless  unhappiness  and 
many  divorces  if  marriages  were  to  be  made 
conditional,  except  under  very  special  reasons, 
on  the  woman  and  the  man  having  been  en- 
gaged for  a  fixed  and  sufficiently  long  period. 
I  would  recommend  this  reform  to  all  ecclesias- 
tical opposers  of  divorce.  Betrothal  should  be 
regarded  as  a  much  more  important  ceremony 
than  is  common  with  us :  here  again  is  a  way  in 
which  we  might  wisely  copy  older  civilizations, 
whose  customs  were  more  strictly  planned  to 
help  men  and  women  in  right  living. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  war  the  number  of 
cases  heard  in  the  divorce  court  rose  from  289 
to  ,520,  which  was  the  highest  figure  then  on 
record.  Last  season  the  number  had  sprung 
up  to  775,  while  on  the  present  term's  lists  there 
are  nearly  800  cases,  showing  the  exceeding  in- 
crease on  the  pre-war  rate.  A  large  percent- 
age of  the  marriages  which  are  dissolved  by  the 
court  have  been  contracted  since  August,  1914. 
Petition  after  petition  is  filed  praying  for  the 
dissolution  of  marriages  which  should  never 
have  been  made.  English  law  makes  mar- 
riage far  too  easy.  In  addition  to  this  alarm- 
ing increase  in  divorce,  a  greater  number  of 


92          WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

deeds  of  separation  have  been  drawn  up  in  the 
last  two  years  than  in  any  preceding  twenty- 
five;  cases  of  bigamy  have  also  become  very 
frequent,  by  women  as  well  as  by  men. 

A  stage  has  now  been  reached  when  the  cry 
for  reform  must  be  listened  to.  Something 
has  got  to  be  done.  The  unhappiness  and  fail- 
ure in  many  marriages  looms  before  us  a  co- 
lossal, an  unprecedented  and  menacing  fact. 
Our  eyes  cannot  any  longer  remain  shut  to  the 
damning  proofs  which  confront  us  from  so 
many  sides. 

IV 

The  question  as  to  how  our  ridiculous  and 
immoral  system  of  divorce —  ( I  really  must  use 
those  terms) — was  ever  permitted  to  come 
into  use  may  be  answered  very  briefly.  The 
Church  ordained  that  marriage  is  indissoluble, 
but,  this  being  found  impossible  in  practice,  the 
State  stepped  in  with  a  way  of  escape — a  kind 
of  emergency  exit.  But  what  a  makeshift  it 
was!  how  flagrantly  dishonest,  how  indecent! 
Adultery  must  be  committed,  and,  in  the  case 
of  the  woman  claiming  relief,  cruelty  or  de- 
sertion must  be  added  to  the  adultery.  To  es- 
cape the  degradation  of  an  unworthy  partner 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    93 

another  partner  must  first  be  sought,  home-life 
wrecked  by  the  worst  kind  of  conduct,  and  mar- 
riage degraded  by  an  act  of  infidelity. 

Now,  this  kind  of  thing  is  bad,  and  no  possi- 
ble shuffling  can  make  it  right ;  it  is,  indeed,  so 
offensive  to  the  feelings  of  most  of  us  that  it  is 
very  rarely,  if  ever,  that  the  immoral  and 
harmful  way  in  which  it  acts  is  put  into  plain 
words. 

The  divorce  law  with  its  materialistic  refusal 
to  accept  any  grounds  for  divorce  except  phys- 
ical infidelity,  physical  cruelty  or  desertion, 
makes  for  a  low  view  of  marriage.  Further,  it 
directly  encourages  perjury,  in  fact  makes 
lying  essential  to  obtaining  the  relief  of  the 
law.  The  law  refuses  to  legalize  divorce  by 
the  consenting  desire  of  both  parties — calls 
such  a  wise  arrangement  collusion;  yet  it  can- 
not prevent  what  everyone  knows  is  done  in  the 
great  majority  of  decently  conducted  divorce 
suits,  where  desertion  and  infidelity  take  place 
by  arrangement.  The  law  is  very  lenient  to 
those  who  can  pay  for  the  best  arrangements 
for  circumventing  the  law's  intentions,  but  even 
in  spite  of  the  recent  concessions,  is  still  hard 
on  the  ignorant  poor  and  low  class.  The  law 
is  a  snob  as  well  as  a  pedantic,  pompous  ass. 


94         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Some  people  may  be  disposed  to  believe  that 
this  very  absurdity  and  unfairness  of  the  law 
acts  to  prevent  divorce.  I  tell  you  it  does  not ; 
what  it  does  do  is  to  render  decent  and  honest 
conduct  quite  impossible.  I  know  this.  I 
speak  because  the  evil  that  is  going  on  ought  to 
be  known.  My  own  opposition  to  the  law  is  not 
so  much  on  account  of  the  difficulty  in  obtain- 
ing a  divorce — for  it  is  not  nearly  so  difficult  as 
most  people  think;  nor  do  I  take  exception,  as 
is  common  with  most  women,  to  the  unequal 
moral  standard  required  from  men  and  wo- 
men; all  this,  as  I  have  said,  can  easily  be 
got  over  if  you  have  money  and  a  sufficiently 
clever  lawyer.  No,  my  passionate  opposition 
is  directed  against  the  trickery  and  dishonesty 
made  necessary  by  the  law. 

Let  me  prove  this  statement.  To  do  so  I 
will  give  brief  details  of  four  divorce  suits 
which  I  think  will  speak  more  forcibly  than 
any  words  of  mine;  in  each  case  I  know  the 
facts  I  give  are  true. 

Case  1. — A  husband  and  wife,  childless,  de- 
sired to  part,  there  was  no  physical  infidelity  on 
either  side,  but  love  had  died.  Both  partners 
desired  to  remarry.  The  wife  proved  deser- 
tion against  the  husband  (arranged  between 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    95 

them  beforehand  by  the  help  of  a  lawyer] . 
She  had  to  write  and  urgently  entreat  the  man 
she  desired  to  leave  her  to  return!  A  decree 
for  the  restitution  of  conjugal  rights  was 
granted  to  her  petition.  Afterwards  the  hus- 
band had  to  commit  adultery;  (again  arranged 
by  the  help  of  the  lawyer.)  He  took  the  wo- 
man he  wished  to  make  his  second  wife  for 
one  night  to  an  hotel.  The  decree  nisi  was 
granted.  Then  there  was  the  six  months  wait- 
ing for  the  decree  to  be  made  absolute.  The 
King's  Proctor  made  inquiries,  it  was  found 
that  the  wife  also  desired  her  freedom;  the  di- 
vorce was  refused  on  the  ground  of  collusion. 
Four  people  were  rendered  desperately  un- 
happy, compelled  either  to  part  or  to  live  to- 
gether without  marriage.  This,  as  was  to  be 
expected,  they  did,  and  children  were  born,  of 
necessity  illegitimately. 

Case  2. — In  this  case  the  husband  loved  his 
wife,  but  she  had  been  unfaithful  to  him  and 
desired  freedom  to  re-marry  her  lover.  There 
were  no  children.  Because  it  was  better  for 
her,  this  wronged  husband  arranged  for  his 
wife  to  divorce  him,  prove  desertion  and  adul- 
tery. There  was  a  slight  difficult!/  because 
it  was  the  wife  who  had  run  away  from  home. 


96         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

However,  this  was  easily  got  over.  The  wife 
wrote  begging  the  husband  to  allow  her  to 
come  home,  representing  that  he  had  sent  her 
away.  He  then  had  to  reply  refusing  her  re- 
quest, and  while  desiring  nothing  on  earth  so 
much  as  her  return  to  him,  had  to  state  he 
would  never  live  with  her  again.  An  act  of 
adultery  was  then  necessary,  and  as  this  good 
and  chivalrous  husband  was  also  an  exception- 
ally moral  man,  he  took  his  sister  to  an  hotel, 
and  the  divorce  was  granted  on  this:  they,  of 
course,  signing  their  names  in  the  hotel  register 
as  Mr.  and  Mrs.  X. 

Case  3. — In  this  case  the  action  of  the  parties 
is  reversed.  The  husband  had  committed 
adultery  and  wished  his  freedom  to  re-marry, 
but  he  held  a  public  position,  and  to  be  the 
guilty  party  in  a  divorce  suit  meant  social  and 
financial  ruin.  The  wife  was  innocent,  and 
still  loved  her  husband,  but  because  she  felt  it 
right  to  free  him,  an  act  of  adultery  for  her 
(not  committed)  was  arranged.  Both  the  de- 
cree nisi  and  the  decree  absolute  were  granted. 
Complications  arose  from  the  fact  that  there 
were  two  children:  as  the  "innocent"  party 
custody  was  granted  to  the  father,  but  he  did 
not  want  the  children.  So  for  the  six  proba- 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    97 

tionary  months  between  the  two  decrees  the 
children  were  placed  with  friends.  After- 
wards they  were  given  back  by  the  father  to  the 
mother. 

When  the  decree  of  a  divorce  has  been  made 
absolute,  you  can  fortunately  do  what  you 
like.  During  the  six  months  probationary 
period,  however,  the  "innocent"  partner  (see 
Case  1 )  has  to  be  so  careful  of  his  or  her  con- 
duct, that  it  is  really  much  more  convenient  to 
be  the  "guilty"  partner.  I  mention  this  as  a 
further  proof  of  the  absurdity  of  the  law,  and 
the  immoral  way  in  which  it  acts. 

Case  4- — This  case  was  even  more  curious 
than  the  three  I  have  given.  A  very  bad  but 
beautiful  woman  had  married  a  man  younger 
than  herself,  an  idealist,  chivalrous,  and  quite 
unusually  moral.  After  a  few  years  of  hell 
the  marriage  had  to  be  ended.  In  kindness, 
and  because  she  was  a  woman,  the  man  said 
she  had  better  divorce  him.  Desertion  was 
proved,  though  it  had  not  taken  place.  Trou- 
ble arose  from  the  necessary  act  of  adultery,  as 
it  was  against  the  principles  of  the  husband 
even  to  appear  to  commit  it.  The  difficulty 
had,  however,  to  be  got  over  or  the  divorce 
given  up.  It  was  done  in  this  tea//:  the  man 


98         WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

got  his  married  sister  to  go  with  her  husband  to 
an  hotel,  personating  him  and  a  woman,  and 
signing  the  hotel  book  with  his  name  as  Mr. 

and  Mrs. .  Now  the  strange  fact  is  that 

though  there  was  no  kind  of  similarity  of  ap- 
pearance between  the  brother-in-law  and  the 
husband,  one  being  very  dark  and  the  other 
very  fair,  one  being  short  and  the  other  tall, 
identity  was  established  and  sworn  to  by  the 
servant  in  the  hotel  where  the  night  had  been 
spent.  How  this  was  arranged  I  do  not  know, 
but  the  decree  nisi  and  the  decree  absolute 
were  granted  without  any  difficulties  arising. 

Now,  none  of  these  cases  are  unusual,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  No.  4 ;  similar  divorce 
suits  are  heard  each  session,  only  that  the  way 
in  which  the  details  have  been  arranged  is  care- 
fully hidden,  to  prevent  the  losing  of  the  case 
on  a  charge  of  collusion.  The  one  absolute 
barrier  in  this  land  to  the  breaking  of  a  mar- 
riage is  that  both  parties  want  it  to  be  broken. 

It  is  obvious,  surely,  without  any  further  ar- 
gument, that  laws  making  perjury  necessary, 
which  demand  the  committing  of  acts  of,  often 
pretended,  infidelity,  are  immoral;  nor  is  their 
immorality  lessened  by  the  fact  that  through 
the  rather  heavy  costs  of  these  "arranged 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING     99 

suits,"  1  only  the  richer  and  more  fortunate 
classes,  as  a  rule,  are  able  to  bring  them. 

I  ask  if  this  state  of  things  is  to  be  allowed 
to  go  on :  are  decent  people  to  be  driven  by  the 
law  to  make  use  of  such  vile  trickery?  I  say 
"decent  people"  advisedly,  for  those  who  bring 
this  kind  of  suit  are  decent,  wishing  to  act  hon- 
orably and  kindly,  and  carrying  out  the  always 
difficult  severing  of  the  marriage  bond  with  as 
little  pain  as  possible.  There  are,  I  know, 
other  divorce  suits  in  which  vindictiveness  and 
jealousy  and  anger  are  the  ruling  motives,  but 
undefended  and  "arranged"  suits,  more  or  less 
on  the  lines  of  those  I  have  given,  are  becoming 
more  and  more  frequent.  Each  law  session 
their  number  is  increasing.  Personally,  I  re- 
gard this  as  an  extraordinarily  healthy  sign. 


I  hope  I  have  now  sufficiently  proved  that 
our  unclean  divorce  laws  can  do  nothing  to  pre- 
serve the  sanctity  of  marriage.  If  we  know 
the  facts,  to  go  on  pretending  that  we  believe 
this  is  to  mark  ourselves  as  hypocrites.  We 

i  Since  writing  this  essay  the  admirably  courageous  and 
honest  letter  of  Commander  Josiah  Wedpcwood  has  appeared, 
in  which  he  gives  the  details  of  his  own  divorce  suit. 


100        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

need  to  get  rid  of  a  system  that  is  as  immoral 
in  theory  as  it  is  evil  in  practice. 

But,  unfortunately,  the  probability  of  the 
law  being  reformed  does  not  depend  on  the 
need  for  reform.  How  many  people  are  af- 
fected ?  What  votes  will  the  advocating  of  the 
reform  gain?  Grievances  that  will  not  gather 
noisy  crowds  will  continue  unheeded.  Mod- 
ern parliaments  are  like  badly  brought  up 
children;  they  can  be  bribed  with  promises  of 
votes  or  frightened  with  fear  of  disorder,  more 
easily  than  led  by  reason. 


VI 

As  soon  as  we  begin  to  consider  the  reform 
of  the  law,  we  come  at  once  to  such  a  tangle  of 
questions  that  I  have  the  greatest  difficulty  in 
finding  the  right  end  to  unwind  the  skein. 
For  the  trouble  with  this  matter  of  our  divorce 
laws,  as  with  most  other  reforms,  is  to  decide 
just  what  ought  to  be  done,  how  far  are  we  pre- 
pared to  go?  where  must  the  marriage  bond  be 
held  tight?  where  may  it  be  loosened?  These 
are  but  examples  of  the  questions  that  have  to 
be  answered.  Hence  the  wrangling  and  the 
failure  in  establishing  any  kind  of  united  will, 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING     101 

which  prevents  anything  at  all  being  done. 
No  one,  for  instance,  can  decide  the  causes  for 
which  it  would  be  right  to  extend  the  grounds 
of  divorce.  Almost  every  individual  inter- 
ested, and  every  group  of  individuals,  appears 
to  have  a  different  opinion  and  offers  opposing 
suggestions.  And  the  issues  are  further  con- 
fused because  any  change  that  concerns  mar- 
riage touches  us  all  so  intimately,  so  that  the  at- 
titude that  we  take  up  must  be  strongly  af- 
fected by  our  deepest  emotions,  which  against 
our  knowledge  are  directed  by  our  unconscious 
wills.  This  explains  much  apparently  unwise 
conduct,  as  well  as  persistent  opposition  to  re- 
form on  the  part  of  many  humane  people,  that 
otherwise  would  be  difficult  to  understand. 
There  is  much  too  great  a  timidity  shown  even 
by  those  who  recognize  most  the  evil  done  by 
our  existing  laws  and  work  for  their  reform. 
They  fear  to  ask  too  much,  always  the  sure  way 
to  get  nothing  done. 

This  question  of  the  causes  for  which  divorce 
should  be  allowed  is  one  that  is  very  unlikely  to 
be  settled.  I  doubt  if  it  can  be  settled  wisely. 
In  my  opinion,  an  enlightened  reform  of  our 
law  must  go  much  further  than  the  providing 
of  ways  of  escape  from  marriage.  Such  exits 


102       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tend  to  destroy  the  happy  working  of  marriage 
and  open  a  direct  way  to  abuses ;  also  they  are 
unable  to  meet  the  needs  of  all  classes,  no  mat- 
ter how  wide  and  numerous  they  are,  while  di- 
rectly they  are  numerous  they  become  ridicu- 
lous. They  can  never  form  the  ultimate  solu- 
tion of  what  ought  to  be  done.  They  tend  to 
make  marriage  contemptible,  and  there  are 
real  grounds  in  the  objections  raised  against 
them.  There  must  be  no  special  exits;  the 
door  of  marriage  must  be  left  open  to  go  out  of 
as  it  is  open  to  enter. 

Nor  do  I  believe  there  need  be  cause  for  fear 
in  this  idea  of  divorce  by  mutual  consent.  It 
is  not  nearly  so  easy  to  break  a  marriage  that 
has  lasted  for  any  time  as  is  usually  thought  by 
those  who  have  never  tried  to  do  it.  The  habit 
of  living  together  forges  bonds  you  do  not  feel 
until  you  try  to  break  them.  The  intimacy  of 
marriage  creates  a  thousand  and  one  little 
every-day  interests  and  ties,  habits,  preoccupa- 
tions and  memories  in  common ;  when  they  are 
torn  it  is  like  tearing  thousands  of  little  nerves 
that  are  far  more  painful  than  the  one  big  hurt 
that  caused  them  to  be  broken.  That  is  why 
most  marriages  are  dissolved  through  anger,  in 
jealous  passion,  and  because  lovers  are  found 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    103 

out.  It  needs  immense  courage  to  sever  a 
marriage  if  you  have  time  to  think  what  you 
are  doing. 

VII 

About  no  subject,  perhaps,  are  prejudices 
so  rampant  as  they  are  about  this  question  of 
changing  the  marriage  laws.  I  am,  however, 
very  certain  that  I  am  right  here.  Nothing 
but  good  would  follow  from  this  introduction 
of  plain  simple  honesty.  There  would  be 
fewer  divorces,  and  not  more,  if  our  laws  were 
freed  from  their  obsession  with  sexual  offenses, 
and  divorce  was  made  a  question  of  quiet  and 
careful  consideration,  and  mutual  thought  and 
decision. 

There  ought  certainly  to  be  a  period  of  wait- 
ing after  the  application  for  divorce,  which 
should  be  signed  by  both  the  partners  of  the 
marriage.  I  would  suggest  that  the  first  ap- 
plication should  be  made  to  lapse  of  itself  un- 
less a  further  application  for  its  enforcement 
was  made  after  a  period  of — say,  two  years. 
Many  people  will  go  on  with  what  they  have 
begun,  even  if  they  don't  want  to  do  so,  because 
they  are  not  brave  enough  publicly  to  say  they 
have  made  a  mistake.  After  the  second  appli- 


104       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

cation  a  further  period  of  waiting,  not  less  than 
a  year,  might  be  required  before  the  decree  for 
dissolution  of  the  marriage  was  made  absolute. 

I  cannot  understand  how  any  honest  mind 
can  fail  to  see  the  advantages  of  this  or  some 
similar  plan  of  divorce  by  mutual  desire  and 
arrangement,  over  the  present  law  which  forces 
the  committal  of  perjury  and  requires  adul- 
tery; nor  can  I  find  any  reason  why  freedom 
should  not  be  granted,  when  the  marriage  is 
childless  and  both  partners,  after  sufficient  de- 
liberation, desire  its  dissolution.  Probably  it 
would  be  wiser,  as  a  further  necessary  safe- 
guard against  too  hasty  parting,  to  require  the 
marriage  to  have  lasted  for  five  years,  before 
application  for  its  dissolution  could  be  made. 
I  think,  however,  in  urgent  cases,  and  wher- 
ever it  could  be  shown  that  the  marriage  had 
been  entered  into  under  a  mistake  and  had  been 
continuously  unhappy,  it  should  be  possible  to 
remit  this  requirement. 

The  case  where  one  partner  only  of  the  mar- 
riage desires  its  dissolution  is  much  more  dif- 
ficult, and  cannot,  I  think,  be  settled  with  the 
same  justice.  I  would,  however,  point  out 
that  the  same  situation  is  common  before  mar- 
riage, when  an  engagement  is  broken  by  one 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    105 

or  other  of  the  lovers,  though,  of  course,  the 
pain  and  injury  (if  such  words  can  be  used  in 
this  connection)  must  be  much  greater  after 
marriage.  The  law  allows  in  these  cases  com- 
pensation to  be  claimed  by  the  injured  partner 
for  the  harm  suffered,  and,  though  no  one  can 
uphold  these  breach  of  promise  cases  (which 
have  increased  so  unfortunately  in  the  war- 
period)  it  should  be  possible  to  avoid  a  similar 
sordidness.  The  establishment  of  right  to 
compensation  is  not  a  new  thing  in  divorce; 
used  in  the  way  I  suggest  it  would  serve  as  a 
safeguard  against  a  too  hasty  escape  from 
marriage,  as  well  as  being  an  act  of  justice  for 
the  partner  who  wished  for  the  divorce  to  com- 
pensate, as  fully  as  his  or  her  means  or  working 
capacity  permitted,  the  one  who  desired  the 
continuance  of  the  marriage. 

The  amount  of  compensation  offered,  as  well 
as  the  amount  claimed,  if  there  was  not  an 
agreement  between  the  partners,  should  be 
stated  when  application  for  the  divorce  is 
made;  and  this  question  should  be  settled  be- 
fore any  further  proceedings  are  allowed. 
The  required  periods  of  waiting  would,  of 
course,  be  enforced. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  my  readers  to  learn 


106       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

that  this  principle  of  compensation,  given  by 
the  partner  who  claims  divorce  to  the  one  who 
does  not  desire  it,  is  one  that  is  common  among 
many  primitive  peoples,  especially  wherever 
customs  of  maternal  descent  prevail.1  It  is 
practiced,  to  give  one  instance,  by  the  Khasis, 
a  maternal  people  of  the  hill  tribes  of  East 
India ;  it  affords  an  example  of  how  much  more 
wisely,  because  more  simply,  these  matters  are 
sometimes  arranged,  before  civilization  de- 
stroys our  common  sense. 

VIII 

So  far,  I  have  ignored  the  real  difficulty  of 
divorce — the  child  or  children.  At  once  the 
situation  alters;  when  children  are  born  both 
the  practical  needs  and  moral  values  are  differ- 
ent. A  marriage  that  becomes  creative  can- 
not be  broken  without  grave  disaster;  for  all 
creative  things  are  eternal.  What,  then,  must 
be  done?  Frankly,  I  know  of  no  one  workable 
plan,  and  I  can  suggest  nothing  except  that  in 
all  cases  the  welfare  of  the  children  should  be 
taken  as  the  standard  to  which  the  desire  of  the 
parents  should  be  subordinate. 

i  See  for  other  examples  "  The  Position  of  Woman  in  Prim- 
itive Society." 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    107 

You  see,  if  we  accept  this  standard  of  the 
child's  good  as  the  one  thing  of  importance,  we 
shall  have  great  changes  to  make  in  our  thought 
and  in  our  action.  I  must  follow  this  a  little, 
though  it  takes  me  away  from  the  main  line  of 
my  argument,  but  I  want  to  make  quite  plain 
the  failure  in  our  attitude.  Perhaps  on  no 
other  aspect  of  this  question  is  greater  non- 
sense talked  than  on  this  one  of  the  effect  of  di- 
vorce on  children.  It  is  said  so  universally 
that  it  is  better  for  the  marriage  to  be  broken 
than  for  children  to  live  in  a  home  in  which  the 
parents  have  ceased  to  love  each  other.  I  am 
not  sure  that  this  is  true,  the  child's  values  are 
often  very  different  from  our  adult  values. 
Only  just  now  I  am  reading  "Joan  and 
Peter,"  by  Mr.  Wells,  and  I  am  amazed  at  the 
levity  with  which  he  makes  his  characters  treat 
this  serious  subject.  You  will  remember  the 
situation,  almost  at  the  opening  of  the  book. 
Dolly,  Peter's  mother  and  the  adopted-mother 
of  Joan,  has  discovered  that  Arthur,  her  hus- 
band, has  been  unfaithful  to  their  marriage. 
She  is  considering  whether  she  will  remain  or 
will  go  to  Africa  with  her  cousin,  Oswald  Sy- 
denham,  who  has  for  long  loved  her.  These 
are  the  passages  of  which  I  wish  to  speak: 


108        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

"Then,  least  personal  and  selfish  thought  of  all, 
was  the  question  of  Joan  and  Peter.  What 
would  happen  to  them?"  Dolly  goes  over  the 
details  of  the  situation,  her  certainty  that  Ar- 
thur would  allow  her  the  custody  of  the  chil- 
dren, then  the  passage  ends  with  this  remark- 
able statement:  Oswald  would  be  as  good  a 
father  as  Arthur.  The  children  weighed  on 
neither  side.  A  little  later  Oswald  speaks  on 
the  same  matter  of  the  children's  future. 
Dolly  has  asked  him,  "But  what  of  Peter  and 
Joan?"  He  answers,  Leave  them  to  nurses 
for  a  year  or  so,  and  then  bring  them  out  to  the 
sun. 

Now,  to  some  people  that  sort  of  talk  sounds 
all  very  well  on  paper,  but  as  Mr.  Wells 
and  everyone  ought  to  know,  it  is  damnably 
different  in  practice.  Shaw,  Wells,  Cannan, 
Beresford,  and  other  writers  have,  in  my  opin- 
ion, done  immense  evil.  They  will  present 
situations  and  treat  them  intellectually,  with- 
out any  honest  facing  of  the  facts.  Children 
cannot  be  left  for  a  few  years  and  then  picked 
up  again  like  a  bag  or  a  trunk.  The  change 
of  a  father  or  a  mother  is  a  tremendous  fact 
to  a  child,  quite  independent  of  whether  the 
new  parent  is  better  or  worse  than  the  parent 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING     109 

who  has  left.  We  know,  as  yet,  very  little  of 
the  results  probable  upon  such  a  change,  but 
we  do  know  that  confusion  and  jealousy  are 
very  likely  to  be  stirred  in  the  childish  soul,  and 
that  these  may  work  tremendous  and  lasting 
harm. 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  bring  this  for- 
ward to  show  a  little  more  clearly  the  complica- 
tions which  are  set  like  a  thick  hedge  around 
this  problem.  There  is  no  easy  way  out,  and 
the  protection  of  the  child's  interests  mean 
much  more  than  provision  for  its  bringing  up 
and  the  satisfying  of  its  physical  needs.  Only 
the  parents  who  are  sure  that  they  are  not 
claiming  their  individual  right  to  freedom  at 
the  expense  of  the  stronger  home  rights  of  their 
child  or  children  can  be  held  blameless  in  dis- 
solving their  marriage.  We  talk  a  great  deal 
to-day  about  children  and  their  welfare,  but 
very  few  of  us  realize  at  all  practically  the 
change  of  attitude,  the  restrictions  of  the  adult 
liberty  and  sacrifice  that  are  likely  to  be  neces- 
sary, if,  under  all  circumstances,  our  theories 
are  to  be  expressed  in  our  daily  conduct. 

And  this  brings  us  straight  back  to  the  ques- 
tion we  are  considering  at  the  very  point  at 
which  we  left  it.  For,  if  we  place  first  the 


110       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

child's  rights,  we  see  at  once  that  our  existing 
divorce  law  does  already  in  this  matter  fail,  and 
fail  very  seriously.1  A  parent,  either  the  fath- 
er or  the  mother,  may  by  neglect  and  many  un- 
kindnesses  do  far  more  injury  to  a  child  than 
by  an  act  of  unfaithfulness.  I  need  not  wait 
to  prove  this  perfectly  obvious  fact.  It  seems 
to  me,  however,  that  these  home-destroying 
acts,  the  result  of  any  sort  of  daily  indecency  of 
living,  which  brings  suffering,  with  lasting  in- 
jury, to  little  children,  are  the  one  condition 
that  makes  divorce  necessary  and  also  right  in 
a  marriage  where  there  are  children. 

I  admit  the  difficulties  of  framing  a  law  suffi- 
ciently elastic  to  meet  this  need.  I  do  not, 
however,  see  that  it  would  be  impossible.  The 
one  who  claimed  the  divorce — the  father  or  the 
mother — or  both  if  the  dissolution  of  the  mar- 
riage was  desired  by  both  parents,  could  be  de- 
sired to  state  in  the  application  for  the  divorce 
full  answers  to  the  following  questions:— 

( 1 )  The  reason  or  reasons  on  which  the  divorce 

was  sought. 

(2)  The  arrangements  one  or  both  parents 

propose  to  make  for  the  after  care  of  the 
child  or  children. 

i  In  this  connection  see  the  admirable  essay  on  Divorce  by- 
Mr.  H.  G.  Wells,  in  "  An  Englishman  Looks  at  the  World." 


THAT  WHICH  IS  WANTING    111 

(3)  The   guarantees    offered    that   these    ar- 

rangements would  be  honorably  fulfilled. 

(4)  Proof  to  be  given  by  one  or  both  parents 

that  the  continuance  of  the  marriage 
would  be  harmful  to  the  welfare  of  the 
children. 

Perhaps  you  will  object  that  such  a  law 
would  limit  too  much  the  liberty  of  the  parents. 
I  acknowledge  this,  and  I  think  such  limitation 
is  right.  You  see,  I  do  not  believe  in  the  kind 
of  liberty  that  makes  it  easy  for  anyone  to  do 
wrong  to  helpless  children. 

Science  has  now  shown  us  how  terribly  the 
future  of  the  child  depends  on  its  early  rela- 
tionships in  the  home :  its  relation  to  its  mother, 
its  relation  to  its  father,  to  its  brothers  and  sis- 
ters. These  early  home  relationships  assume 
a  much  deeper  aspect,  and  are,  indeed,  the  most 
important  influence  in  the  life  of  every  human 
being.  Parenthood  is  far  more  nearly  eternal 
than  we  knew.  It  is  this  tremendous  fact, 
from  which  there  can  be  no  kind  of  escape,  that 
ought  to  decide  our  attitude  and  direct  us  in 
framing  an  honest  and  clean  divorce  law. 
This  protection  of  those  who  cannot  protect 
themselves  is  the  one  essential  and  right  con- 
sideration. The  law  must  take  action  to  guard 


112        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

all  children  that  the  failure  or  folly  of  their 
parents  do  not  fall  too  heavily  upon  them. 

There  is  little  more  that  I  need  to  say.  A 
hard  and  fast  divorce  law  cannot,  I  am  sure, 
meet  the  needs  of  the  young  people  of  the  new 
generation;  moreover,  it  cannot  but  act  to  de- 
grade marriage.  Marriage  is  too  difficult— 
the  needs  of  children,  as  well  as  the  needs  of 
men  and  women  are  too  complicated  for  the  old 
standards  of  punishments.  Divorce  as  it  ex- 
ists at  present  is  a  revenge,  it  ought  to  be  a  help 
to  honorable  conduct;  it  depends  now  upon  a 
committal  of  perjury  and  adultery,  it  ought  to 
depend  on  honesty  and  on  a  right  fulfilling  of 
responsibilities. 


Fourth  Essay 
'GIVE,  GIVE!" 


SOME  REMARKS  ON  PROSTITUTION,  AND  AN  INQUIRY  AS  TO 
THE  BEST  MEANS  OF  PREVENTING  THE  SPREAD  OF 
VENEREAL  DISEASES. 

"The  horse-leach  hath   two  daughters,  crying,  Give, 
Give!" — Pro.  xxx.  15. 


MANY  observers  point  out  an  increase  in  loose 
conduct  during  the  war.  In  that  period  there 
were  established  large  camps  of  soldiers  in 
lonely  places,  who  were  freed  from  the  neigh- 
bor's eye :  women  also  were  withdrawn  in  large 
numbers  from  the  influences  of  the  home.  The 
war  lessened  restraints  and  increased  tempta- 
tion. 

I  will  refer  to  two  out  of  many  newspaper 
cuttings  which  dwell  on  the  consequent  evils:— 

WOMEN,  WAR,  AND  MORALS 

Mr.  Justice  Darling's  View 

Mr.  Justice  Darling,  in  a  case  at  the  Old 
Bailey  yesterday,  said  the  harm  the  war  had 

113 


114       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

done  to  the  morals  of  the  people  of  this  country 
was  far  beyond  the  material  damage. 

In  nothing  had  it  done  more  harm  than  in 
the  relaxation  on  the  part  of  the  women  of  this 
country.  This  had  now  reached  a  point  that 
it  could  be  seen  in  a  walk  along  the  street. 
Women  differed  by  the  width  of  Heaven  from 
what  their  mothers  were. 

This  is  quite  the  hardest  thing  that  has  been 
said  about  women,  the  hardest  comparison  that 
could  be  made;  but  unhappily  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied. And  a  second  paragraph,  taken  from 
the  Daily  Telegraph,  carries  us  a  stage  fur- 
ther, from  cause  to  effect.  The  looseness  of 
morals  has  increased  alarmingly  the  spread  of 
venereal  diseases. 

"Giving  evidence  before  the  National  Birth 
Rate  Commission  in  London,  Dr.  E.  B.  Tur- 
ner, after  advocating  early  marriage  and  urg- 
ing the  necessity  for  a  higher  moral  standard, 
without  which  venereal  diseases  would  never 
be  kept  down,  made  this  statement: 

These  diseases  were  now  being  spread  not 
only  by  professional  prostitutes.  People  ha"d 
gone  wrong  through  the  wave  of  sentimental 
patriotism  which  had  swept  over  the  country. 
Out  of  112  soldiers  taken  to  the  Rochester 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  115 

Road  Institution,  only  fourteen  had  contracted 
disease  from  professionals.  The  others  had 
contracted  it  from  flappers." 

The  condition  of  the  streets  is  such  that  it  is 
not  safe  to  let  any  young  man  or  boy  walk 
about,  not  so  much  because  of  prostitutes,  men 
may  learn  to  avoid  them,  but  because  of 
dressed-up,  flighty  girls,  who  have  earned  big 
wages  during  the  past  four  years,  and  now  are 
feeling  the  want  of  money  to  spend  upon  dress 
and  pleasure.  Almost  for  the  first  time  girls 
have  had  money,  and  it  has  enabled  them  to  do 
what  they  want;  they  have  learned  more  than 
their  mothers  know  and,  therefore,  they  despise 
their  mothers'  ideas  of  what  is  fitting  and  nat- 
ural. Modern  girls  are  out  to  get  all  they 
can,  and  by  any  means.  It  is,  I  know,  easy  to 
exaggerate  the  situation.  I  have,  however, 
taken  pains  to  gain  all  possible  information  on 
the  subject.  I  find  it  the  opinion  of  those  who 
are  best  qualified  to  know  that  the  most  alarm- 
ing feature  of  the  problem  now  is  the  greatly 
increased  danger  of  spreading  the  diseases, 
caused  by  the  shifting  of  infection  from  the 
professional  prostitute  to  young  girls  out  for 
larks  and  presents.  I  was  told  by  one  worker 
in  the  Police  Court  Mission,  for  instance,  of  a 


club  for  girls,  aged  from  fourteen  to  twenty- 
six  years,  among  whom  there  was  probably  not 
a  single  pure  girl.  A  woman  rescue  worker 
said  that  "South  London  was  swamped  by 
these  larking  girls,"  so  many  cases  come  up 
that  "no  one  knows  what  to  do  with  them."  In 
the  Police  courts,  while  the  number  of  women 
charged  had  lessened  considerably,  the  number 
of  girls  charged  has  increased  three-fold. 
Many  of  these  girls  are  very  young;  some  of 
them  hardly  more  than  children.  In  almost  all 
cases  the  charge  made  is  the  same — disorderly 
conduct  with  soldiers.  Of  the  number  of  girls 
convicted  and  sent  to  prison  or  to  rescue  homes, 
at  least  three  parts  are  found  to  be  infected,  the 
greater  number  with  gonorrhoea,  but  some  with 
syphilis. 

Now,  it  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  to  blame 
women.  The  great  majority  of  these  girls  are 
ill-trained,  and  have  been  worked  beyond  care 
for  decency.  The  question  is,  what  it  is  best  to 
do.  The  answer  is  not  easy.  For  while  every- 
one is  agreed  about  the  need  for  action,  disa- 
greement as  to  what  form  the  action  shall  take 
hinders  the  adoption  of  any  wider  course  of 
prevention.  Here  again  there  is  no  unity  of 
purpose,  no  humility  to  accept  what  is  right. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  117 

II 

For  mys'elf,  I  shall  try  to  avoid  a  purely 
moral  and  idealistic  treatment  of  the  subject. 
At  the  same  time,  before  explaining  what  prac- 
tical measures  should,  in  my  opinion,  be  taken 
to  lessen  the  evils,  I  should  like  to  refer  briefly, 
and  I  know  inadequately,  to  the  deeper  causes, 
which  are  rooted  in  our  attitude  of  life,  as  well 
as  dependent  on  our  hidden  desires.  Man, 
and  of  course  I  include  woman,  as  a  whole  is 
estimated  at  too  low  a  value.  It  is  a  paradox- 
ical consequence  that  the  parts  of  man,  I  mean 
his  separate  organs,  rise  in  value.  His  brain, 
his  sex,  his  stomach — each  strives  for  mastery  in 
attention ;  a  faithless  age  has  manias  of  sexual- 
ity, of  intellect,  of  gastronomy.1  These  ma- 
nias are  the  result  of  low  values  really  placed 
on  man  himself.  How  do  we  discover  that  low 
value;  It  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  opinion; 
far  more  important  than  the  opinion  of  the 
public  is  the  wide-spread,  always-acting,  fun- 
damental public  feeling,  expressed  in  the  at- 
mosphere of  our  society.  Every  smallest  de- 
tail of  life,  our  aims  and  hourly  habits,  every- 
thing that  makes  up  the  secret  imaginations 

i  See  Ed.  Carpenter,  "Civilization:     Its  Cause  and  Cure." 


118       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

and  the  un-willed  purposes  of  life — all  have 
a  part  to  play  in  deciding  what  our  estima- 
tions of  life  will  be,  the  things  we  shall  seek 
as  desirable,  what  avoid  as  unpleasant.  If  our 
estimations  and  hidden  desires  in  actual  fact 
rise  in  goodness,  if  we  find  better  aims  to  sat- 
isfy our  lives  than  the  excitements  of  sexual 
satisfaction,  then  this  department  of  morality 
will  rise. 

The  question  is  one  of  great  complexity,  and 
the  surest  means  of  improvement  are  very  diffi- 
cult to  decide;  not  to  be  settled  in  a  spirit  of 
Sunday-school  optimism.  The  bad  boy  does 
not  always  come  to  harm,  or  the  good  boy  gain 
the  reward  that  he  ought  to  have.  It  is  not  so 
simple  as  that.  Even  if  all  vulgar  and  evil  de- 
sires could  by  some  magician's  wand  be  trans- 
formed into  their  opposites,  so  that  all  of  us 
bubbled  and  seethed  with  virtues,  I  do  not  be- 
lieve we  could  count  on  the  results.  Our  very 
virtues  might  hasten  us  to  perdition :  both  high- 
er and  lower  aims,  if  ill-adjusted  to  form  a  com- 
plete life,  may  lead  astray.  The  savage  in  us 
all  has  to  be  reckoned  with  as  the  angel,  and 
the  dreamer  who  ever  looks  to  heaven  often 
stumbles  over  a  tiny  stone.  Thus  a  helpless 
romanticizing,  a  too  ideal  as  well  as  a  too  low 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  119 

view  of  love,  may  lead  easily  to  a  self -deceiving 
resort  to  prostitution. 

All  forcing  of  goodness,  in  my  opinion,  is 
dangerous.  Often  the  cause  of  virtue  is  in- 
jured, like  the  cause  of  religion,  not  only  when 
virtue  is  allied  with  routine,  dullness  and  nar- 
rowness, but  also  when  appeal  is  made  to  as- 
pirations, which  the  young  rarely  feel  sponta- 
neously, aspirations  ill-adapted  and  too  high 
for  their  immature  characters  and  the  needs  at 
the  stage  of  virtue  that  has  been  reached.  Cer- 
tainly they  appear  to  respond,  fall  in  with  our 
plans  of  salvation  and  often  accept  them  with 
seeming  joy;  I  venture,  however,  to  think  that 
very  often  this  external  attitude  does  not  in 
any  way  correspond  with  the  internal  one,  that 
very  often  there  has  been  disturbance  and 
shock,  to  be  followed  later  by  increased  need 
for  excitement,  with  an  impulse  to  more  peril- 
ous adventure  to  cover  the  unconscious  feeling 
of  frustration  and  disappointment;  while  an- 
other result  is  a  sense  of  unreality,  a  state  al- 
ways unfavorable  to  moral  health. 

If  morality  is  seen  as  something  overbeauti- 
ful  for  daily  use,  even  more  than  as  something 
dull,  inactive,  over-prudent;  if  vice,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  conceived  as  easy,  brilliant,  gay, 


120        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

gallantly  reckless,  in  opposition  to  the  too  ethe- 
real or  merely  stupid  and  prosaic  aspects  of  life 
(though  in  reality  seldom  do  the  dissipated  and 
those  who  prey  on  the  vices  of  mankind  pos- 
sess any  brilliance  or  originality) ,  then  beauty 
and  virtue  will  aid  vice,  through  the  stimulus 
of  contradiction  it  will  provide.  Vice  will  gain 
by  the  brilliance,  wit  and  beauty,  which  the  ar- 
tists and  creators  of  the  world  ought  to  be  in- 
duced, were  the  world's  cause  properly  cared 
for,  to  connect  with  virtue. 

The  popular  view  of  our  common  motives 
still  inclines  to  reduce  everything  to  a  single 
impulse — the  young  are  moved  exclusively  by 
self-interest  and  the  search  for  pleasure.  But 
surely  this  view  is  false.  Hazlitt,  the  English 
essayist  most  interested  in  psychology,  in  his 
essay  on  "Mind  and  Motive,"  correctly  ob- 
serves that,  "love  of  strong  excitement  both  in 
thought  and  action"  has  much  more  influence 
on  our  ideas,  passions  and  pursuits  than  mere 
desire  for  the  agreeable.  Curiosity  itself,  also 
the  love  of  truth,  "our  teasing  ourselves  to  rec- 
ollect the  names  of  persons  and  places  we  have 
forgotten,  the  love  of  riddles  and  of  abstruse 
philosophy,"  he  holds  these  to  be  illustrations 
of  "the  love  of  intellectual  excitement,"  and, 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  121 

with  respect  to  this  curiosity,  he  holds  that  our 
vices  are  more  due  to  it  than  to  sexual  gratifi- 
cations, saying  with  regard  to  vicious  habits, 
"curiosity  makes  more  votaries  than  inclina- 
tion." 

We  find,  then,  that  the  difficult  problem  we 
are  considering,  like  other  social  problems,  has 
a  material  aspect,  that  is  a  medical  aspect,  an 
intellectual  aspect,  and  a  spiritual  aspect  con- 
cerning the  aims  of  life:  and  of  these  the  last  is 
the  most  fundamental;  it  is  obviously  also  the 
most  difficult.  To  attack  the  situation  fully  it 
would  be  necessary  to  change  most  of  our  con- 
temporary life.  We  are,  however,  bound  to 
realize  that,  if  we  are  to  succeed,  our  attention 
must  shift  from  saving  the  fallen,  to  removing 
the  hindrances  and  the  temptations  that  are  the 
causes  of  falling.  In  other  words,  we  have  to 
provide  a  society  in  which  the  young  will  find 
virtue  and  goodness  as  serviceable  to  their 
needs  and  as  attractive  as  vice  and  doing  evil. 

Ill 

If  we  turn  now  to  the  practical  consideration 
of  the  problem  before  us,  we  find  the  situation, 
difficult  as  it  is,  is  not  without  hope.  We  have 


to  face  as  the  result  of  the  war  a  task  greatly 
enlarged  and  growing  in  difficulties,  but  if  we  do 
so  face  it — and  the  very  increase  in  the  danger 
is  urging  us  like  spurs  in  the  flesh  of  a  tired 
horse — we  have  an  exceptionally  favorable  op- 
portunity for  correction  and  amendment.  For 
one  thing,  we  have  become  more  used  to  being 
interfered  with,  also,  I  think  we  have  come  to 
understand  in  a  new  and  more  profound  way 
that  each  man  "is  his  brother's  keeper." 
Again  the  real  difficulty  arises  now,  not  so 
much  from  our  want  of  good  will,  as  from  our 
failure  to  act  unitedly,  and  formulate  and  carry 
out  a  wide-reaching  program  of  reform. 

If  for  the  sake  of  clarity,  we  try  by  classify- 
ing motives  to  form  a  rough  grouping,  we  find 
that,  as  with  most  political  subjects,  there  are 
three  opinions  with  regard  to  proposals  for 
State  interference  to  stay  the  peril  and  prevent 
the  spread  of  venereal  disease. 

The  first  school  favors  extreme  State  inter- 
ference. Persons  suspected  of  disseminating 
disease  (or  "denounced  by  one  of  the  opposite 
sex"  as  having  done  so)  are  liable  to  be  ar- 
rested, medically  examined,  and,  if  necessary, 
detained  for  re-examination  and  for  treatment 
until  cured:  habitual  prostitutes  can  be  sen- 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  123 

tenced  to  imprisonment.  Possibly  State-in- 
spected brothels  will  be  established;  all  street 
solicitation  treated  as  an  offense.  Compulsory 
medical  certificates  of  freedom  from  infectious 
venereal  diseases  will  be  made  a  legal  prerequi- 
site of  marriage;  all  wishing  to  be  married, 
when  found  infected,  to  be  registered  and 
treated  until  certified  free  from  infection. 
State  provision  of  hygienic  preventative  and 
curative  means  are  to  be  given  free  to  those  in 
danger  from  infection  as  well  as  to  all  suffering 
from  venereal  diseases.  Finally,  severe  police 
action  is  urged  against  agents,  landlords,  pub- 
licans, restaurant  and  hotel-keepers,  theater, 
music-hall  and  cinema  owners,  fortune-tell- 
ers— and  everyone  directly  or  indirectly  prof- 
iteering by  prostitution.  This  is  not  a  descrip- 
tion of  any  one  national  treatment,  or  proposed 
treatment  of  the  problem,  but  rather  a  com- 
posite hotch-potch,  intended  to  include  the 
main  features  of  the  newr  and  old  schemes 
based  on  State  interference  and  regulation  of 
vice. 

The  opposite  school  of  thought  produces  an 
opposite  scheme;  one  that  I  may,  perhaps,  call 
an  ethical  Sunday-school  plan  of  salvation  by 
means  of  guidance  and  gentle  persuasions. 


They  would  educate  people  in  the  fact  that  all 
promiscuous  intercourse  is  likely  to  be  danger- 
ous, and  recommend  only  an  alteration  of  the 
laws  of  marriage  and  divorce  to  meet  cases  of 
marital  infection  and  to  protect  children  who 
are  infected  by  negligence.  Such  a  course  of 
mild  action  is  widely  supported  by  bishops  and 
by  "sheltered"  women,  who  reveal  to  us  curi- 
ously the  psychology  of  the  class,  which, 
throughout  the  Victorian  period,  practiced 
idealism  on  the  easiest  methods. 

The  practical  objections  usually  advanced 
to  "the  interference  school"  are  that  laws  of 
regulation  create  an  illusory  sense  of  security 
which  encourages  vice  and  increases  the  spread 
of  disease.  No  inspection,  however  widely  and 
well  regulated,  can  guarantee  that  it  will  detect 
all  infected  persons,  but  the  idea  will  prevail 
that  all  infected  at  any  time  are  "locked  up." 
A  still  stronger  objection  as  urged  by  women, 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  law  will  not  be 
equal  in  its  treatment  of  the  two  sexes :  the  man 
on  the  spree  after  his  day's  work  will  seek  his 
pleasure  without  danger  of  the  law's  hand, 
while  a  woman,  in  a  similar  position,  in  work 
and  not  asking  for  money,  will  be  liable  to  ar- 
rest for  soliciting,  and  detention  and  imprison- 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  125 

ment,  if  affected.  I  shall  have  more  to  say 
soon  on  this  question;  here  I  will  remark  only 
that  in  bringing  forward  these  objections  I  am 
not  stating  opinions  of  my  own,  but  trying  to 
be  fair  to  objections,  which,  I  know,  are  strong 
in  the  minds  of  the  majority  of  women.  But 
I  diverge  a  little  in  these  comments  from  my 
present  work  of  classifying  schemes. 

The  third  type  of  treatment  pursues,  of 
course,  a  moderate,  middle  course.  Registra- 
tion and  treatment  of  disease  should  not  be 
compulsory,  because,  as  opinion  at  present  is, 
this  course  will  lead  merely  to  concealment  on 
the  part  of  the  sufferers,  whereas  medical  treat- 
ment at  the  earliest  possible  hour  is  what  is 
aimed  at;  but  free  treatment  and  provision  of 
curative  safeguards  should  be  provided  to  all 
who  apply  for  them,  and  always  with  secrecy. 
(There  is  much  opposing  opinion  as  to  which 
of  these  two  preventative  plans — providing  of 
disinfectants  to  be  used  before  or  of  remedies 
to  be  used  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  act — is 
the  more  effective.)  No  wide-spread  schemes 
for  examination  and  detention  are  recom- 
mended, rather  are  they  discouraged;  nor  is 
there  any  firm  regulation  for  ending  street  so- 
liciting. Certificates  of  health  should  not  be 


126       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

made  a  legal  pre-requisite  to  marriage,  but  the 
existence  of  venereal  disease  should  annul  mar- 
riage without  expense,  making  the  law  appli- 
cable to  the  poor  as  well  as  to  the  rich.  Also, 
medical  men  should  be  specially  authorized, 
without  risk  of  libel,  slander  or  other  legal  at- 
tack, to  inform  parents  or  guardians  or  others 
directly  interested,  that  anyone  contemplating 
marriage,  a  man  or  a  woman — is  in  an  infec- 
tious state. 

It  may  be  pointed  out  here  that  military 
authorities  seem  to  lay  stress  on  one  thing  that 
some  people  will  say  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
subject — the  provision  of  proper  means  of 
recreation.  Personally,  I  would  emphasize 
this  aspect  of  the  question  to  which  I  have  but 
just  now  referred.  If  the  amusement  is  to 
fulfill  the  purpose  required,  and  be  really  a 
strong  counter  attraction  from  vice,  it  must  be 
the  kind  of  recreation  desired  and  liked  by  the 
young  people  for  whom  it  is  provided,  not 
merely  the  recreation  that  is  considered  good 
for  them  by  the  adults  who  provide  it.  This 
opens  up,  of  course,  a  whole  welter  of  ques- 
tions. I  am  not  advocating  bad  and  low  class 
entertainments;  I  hate  them  and  think  their 
suggestive  influence  a  curse  among  us.  Yet, 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  127 

I  do  fear  the  adverse  action,  of  any  kind  of 
amusement  that  takes  the  form  of  an  unliked 
and  moral-forcing  hot-house. 

The  fluttering  about,  the  glitter  and  glare  of 
dissipation,  is  always,  I  think,  at  first  the  fierce 
striving  of  a  sickly  life  towards  the  only  attrac- 
tive and  visible  light.  Certainly  the  providing 
of  wholesome  amusement  is  necessary,  but,  in 
relation  to  all  the  change  that  is  really  called 
for,  this  is  just  about  as  important  as  the  giv- 
ing of  packets  of  sweets.  What  is  wanted  is  a 
wiser  understanding  of  the  many  and  conflict- 
ing needs  of  the  young ;  the  provision  of  the  op- 
portunities and  outlets  which  their  bodies'  and 
souls'  growth  demand;  needs  which  must  be 
gratified,  or  the  body,  driven  by  dissatisfaction 
and  curiosity,  seeks  the  gratification  that  has 
been  taken  away  from  the  creative  soul. 


IV 

But  to  return  to  plans  of  action  for  fighting 
this  scourge.  The  fight  has  to  be  made,  and 
to  be  begun  at  once.  It  is  stated  that  there 
were,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  20,000  infected  men  receiving 
treatment  in  our  Army  and  Navy  Hospitals. 


128       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

According  to  the  estimate  of  the  Royal  Com- 
mission on  Venereal  Diseases  published  in  1916 
there  were,  at  that  time,  something  like  3,000,- 

000  syphilitic  persons  in  the  Kingdom,  450,000 
in   London   alone.     Since   1916   the   number 
must  have  greatly  increased.     Many  diseases 
are  more  immediately  fatal  to  mankind  than 
are  these  diseases,  but  none  are  so  disastrous  in 
their  effects.     To  take  but  two  examples  of 
their  destructive  incidence;  it  is  known  that  to 
them  more  than  half  of  both  the  blindness  and 
the  lunacy  in  this  country  is  directly  due.     But 

1  need  not  trouble  you  with  facts  and  figures 
that  to-day  are  known  to  almost  everyone. 

What  is  needed  now  is  a  world-wide,  organ- 
ized plan  of  defense,  modified  possibly  to  meet 
the  special  requirements  of  different  countries, 
but,  as  far  as  is  possible,  the  same  for  the  whole 
world.  A  first  step  has  been  taken,  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Red  Cross  Societies  of  the 
world,  which  was  held  at  Cannes,  in  April, 
1919.  No  man  can  tell  how  far-reaching  its 
work  will  prove:  an  International  Health  Bu- 
reau was  instituted  and  arrangements  made  for 
a  further  great  conference  to  be  held  at  Geneva 
after  the  signing  of  peace. 

I  would  like  to  wait  and  write  of  the  Cannes 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  129 

Conference,  which  to  me  was  an  event  more 
serious  even  than  the  other  world  conference, 
where  some  were  thoughtlessly  and  selfishly 
juggling  with  human  affairs.  Here  was  no 
pretending,  no  hiding  of  motives,  just  a  facing 
of  the  real  situation.  The  great  events  of  life 
are  almost  always  quiet.  I  picture  the  great 
ball-room,1  where  usually  jazzes  and  one-steps 
were  indulged  in  by  the  officers  of  the  Allied 
Armies  and  bright  girl  W.A.A.C.S.  and 
W.R.E.N.S.,  occupied  now  with  grave  men; 
a  group  of  some  of  the  greatest  scientists  ever 
assembled  together.  United  they  seek  for  the 
first  time  how  best  an  end  may  be  made  to  this 
tragic  scourge  of  our  civilization;  ~  their  fervent 
purpose  should  light  a  flame  to  blaze  in  action 
in  every  civilized  country. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  over-emphasize  the 
importance  of  the  findings  of  this  Conference. 
We  women  are  glad  to  know  that  the  Commit- 

i  The  Conference  was  held  in  the  ball-room  of  the  Club  of 
the  Allied  Officers  at  Cannes. 

-  In  this  connection,  it  should  be  noted  that  there  was  a 
time  when  syphilis  was  unknown  in  our  civilization.  It  cannot 
be  traced  with  any  certainty  in  Kurope  before  the  fifteenth 
century,  although  its  origin  is  involved  in  some  controversy. 
The  attempt  to  suppress  venereal  diseases  by  proper  treatment 
is  of  little  more  than  twelve  years  duration.  Three  men  — 
Wassermann,  Ehrlich,  and  Xoguchi  —  have  supplied  the  knowl- 
edge whereby  the  evil  may  be  attacked.  See  "  Motherhood  and 
the  Relationship  of  the  Sexes,"  p.  283,  ct  seq. 


130       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tee  reported  unanimously  against  State  regu- 
lation of  vice  and  State  toleration  of  prostitu- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  the  repression  of  all 
street-soliciting  was  advocated,  as  well  as  con- 
trol of  restaurants,  hotels  or  other  places  with 
reference  to  their  use  for  promoting  prostitu- 
tion. The  Committee  further  favored  the  de- 
tention and,  where  necessary,  the  isolation  of 
all  persons  known  to  be,  or  suspected  of  being 
infected,  and  advocated  the  adoption  of  the  re- 
port system  in  regard  to  early  preventive  treat- 
ment. The  importance  of  early  marriage  was 
urged.  Other  measures  recommended  were 
the  custodial  care  of  the  feeble-minded,  and 
State  control  of  the  use  of  alcohol. 

So  many  people,  and  especially,  I  think,  wo- 
men are  led  astray  by  sex  sentiment  as  soon  as 
they  approach  these  problems.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  this  can  be  avoided,  but  we  may  guard 
against  it.  Thus,  those  who  hesitate,  and  there 
are  many  who  do  hesitate,  in  adopting  the  pro- 
posals of  the  Cannes  Committee,  which  are 
aimed,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  against 
prostitutes,  should  take  care  to  consider  all  the 
facts.  Of  late  there  has  been  exhibited  in  this 
country  a  rather  bewildering  sentimentality 
about  this  matter.  The  experience  of  the 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  131 

American  Army  authorities  should  teach  us  a 
much-needed  lesson.  The  American  program 
to  maintain  the  sexual  health  of  the  men  went 
much  further  than  any  English  proposal, 
straight  and  without  sentiment  to  the  main 
cause  of  the  disease,  in  a  way  that  should  shame 
our  vacillating  methods. 

"The  repression  of  prostitution  was  declared 
to  be  a  public  health  measure,  and  all  public 
health  departments  were  required  to  cooperate 
actively  with  the  proper  law  authorities  in  min- 
imizing its  practice."  When  the  American 
armies  entered  France,  the  same  end,  of  keep- 
ing the  men  from  "coming  in  contact  with  the 
prostitutes,  either  public  or  clandestine,"  was 
always  kept  in  view.  The  difficulties  were  im- 
mense. At  that  time  (from  August  to  the 
early  part  of  November,  1917)  the  troops  were 
stationed  in  certain  French  towns,  where  the 
houses  of  prostitution  were  running  wide  open 
and  were  frequented  by  large  numbers  of  men. 
On  November  15th  all  these  houses  were  placed 
out  of  bounds.  The  table  on  the  following 
page  shows  what  happened. 

Take  also  these  figures:  in  one  body  of  7,401 
troops  belonging  to  various  branches  of  the 
service,  with  an  average  of  seven  weeks  in 


132        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

France,  only  56  prophylactic  treatments  were 
given,  and  only  one  case  of  venereal  disease  de- 
veloped; again,  during  two  months  in  France, 
one  infantry  regiment  of  3,267  men  had  a  rec- 


Month 

No.  of 

No.  of 

Disease 

Rate 

Troops. 

Prophylaxis. 

Cases. 

p.  1000. 

CO 

co  C 

August    - 

4,571 

1,669 

72 

16 

0    SH 

September 

9,471 

3,392 

124 

13 

E  ° 

October  - 

3,966 

2,074 

67 

16 

3  co 

g'3 

«  § 

o   »- 

November 

7,017 

885 

81 

10 

co   O 

3-D 

December 

4,281 

539 

44 

10 

flu 

January  - 

3,777 

523 

8 

2 

ord  of  only  eleven  prophylactic  treatments, 
and  no  case  of  disease.  But  perhaps  the  most 
effective  example  of  the  efforts  made  by  the 
American  authorities  to  repress  prostitution  in 
France  occurred  at  Blois.  American  troops 
arrived  at  the  town  in  January,  1918.  The 
brothels  were  at  once  placed  out  of  bounds,  but, 
shortly  afterward,  and,  owing  to  protestations 
on  the  part  of  the  French  authorities,1  the  order 
was  relaxed,  in  so  far  as  one  of  the  brothels 
was  taken  over  for  the  use  of  the  American  sol- 
diers. Not  for  long  was  this  tolerated.  On 
March  21,  this  brothel  also  was  put  out  of 
bounds.  Strict  repressive  measures  against 

i "  The  Fight  against  Venereal   Disease,"   by   Raymond   B. 
Hodick,  The  New  Republic,  Nov.  30,  1918. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  133 

prostitution  and  street-walking  were  put  in 
force;  and  repeated  arrests — by  the  military 
police — both  of  prostitutes  and  suspected  pros- 
titutes, succeeded  in  almost  ridding  the  town  of 
this  menace. 

The  result  was  very  interesting.  I  will 
quote  directly  from  the  article  from  which 
these  facts  are  taken: 

Although  politicians  and  the  owners  of 
cafes  and  brothels  continued  to  protest,  the 
decent  elements  of  the  community  gradually 
changed  from  an  attitude  of  skepticism,  even 
of  hostility  and  resentment,  to  one  of  appre- 
ciation, commendation  and  cooperation.  An 
official  report  from  the  Surgeon-General's 
office  on  conditions  in  the  town  declared: 

"It  is  evident  that  placing  the  houses  at 
Blois  out  of  bounds  has  had  a  wonderful  ef- 
fect, not  only  in  lowering  the  venereal  rate, 
but  in  improving  the  morality  of  the  soldiers 
and  also  of  the  civil  population" 
Of  course,  these  few  figures  and  scattered 
facts  cannot  tell  the  whole  story ;  they  do,  how- 
ever,  indicate   with   sufficient   clearness   what 
may  be  done  by  firm  and  fearless  action. 


134       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 


V 

Let  me  try  to  make  the  position  clearer  by 
means  of  another  and  quite  different  illustra- 
tion. The  results  of  restrictions  on  the  drink 
trade  in  England  during  the  war  showed  that 
legislative  interference  with  strict  rules  can  do 
much  more  than  many  of  us  believed.1  Wipe 
off  all  that  is  doubtful  in  the  results,  all  eva- 
sions of  the  law,  all  that  was  due  to  the  absence 
of  a  large  number  of  healthy  men,  yet  the  State 
interference  —  prohibition  of  treating,  great 
shortening  of  hours,  provision  of  weakened 
beer — these  undoubtedly  have  acted  so  as  to  re- 
duce drunkenness. 

Surely  this  must  serve  as  a  great  proof  that 
the  removal  of  temptation  is  the  one  effective 
remedy  to  help  men  and  women  and  to  prevent 
sin.  A  man  who  got  into  trouble  with  a  wo- 
man not  very  long  ago,  gave  as  a  defense  in 
police  court:  "You  can  say  'No'  to  one  wo- 
man, but  when  they  are  round  you  all  the  time 
you  can't." 

i  My  own  opinions  have  been  greatly  influenced  by  what 
has  been  done  in  England  with  regard  to  drink,  and  in  the 
American  Army  in  maintaining  the  health  of  the  Army  by 
restricting  prostitution,  which  explains  a  change  in  my  atti- 
tude, since  writing  the  chapter  on  "  Prostitution "  in  The 
Truth  about  Woman. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  135 

The  three  objections  specially  urged  by  wo- 
men against  laws  directed  against  prostitution 
and  prohibiting  solicitation  are  :— 

(1)  That  such  laws  cannot  prevent  all  solici- 

tation. This  may  be  granted,  but  it  does 
not  prove  that  they  may  not  greatly  les- 
sen the  evil  of  solicitation.  It  may  be 
granted,  in  the  same  way,  that  no  State 
prohibition  can  prevent  all  secret  drink- 
ing. But  this  is  no  reason  for  or  against 
prohibition;  the  question  is  what  it  does 
do,  not  what  it  does  not  do. 

(2)  That  such  laws  act  unequally  for  the  two 

sexes, — that  is,  that  a  man  is  never,  or  al- 
most never,  made  specially  liable  for  so- 
liciting and  worrying  women.  This  ob- 
jection is  really  quite  absurd,  and  it  is 
only  on  account  of  the  frequency  with 
which  it  is  urged  by  women  that  I  refer 
to  it  again.  For  the  life  of  me,  I  cannot 
see  how  any  woman  reconciles  it  with  her 
conscience  to  bring  forward  such  a  silly 
evasion.  A  woman  can  always  give  a 
man  in  charge  who  annoys  and  insults 
her;  moreover,  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases  she  could  without  effort  protect  her- 
self from  any  such  annoyance.  Laugh- 


136        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

ter  is  a  weapon  that  will  dishearten  the 
most  persistent  man-follower.  Besides, 
as  every  one  of  us  knows,  solicitation  is 
the  woman's  act,  and  not  the  man's  in 
ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  these 
cases.  The  man  may  be  ready,  possibly 
he  may  seek,  but  he  seeks  only  where  he 
knows  the  one  sought  will  invite.  This 
objection  cannot  then,  in  honesty,  stand. 
(3)  That  such  laws  encourage  blackmailing  by 
the  police ;  also  that  the  police  may  arrest 
poor,  hard-working  and  defenseless  girls, 
out  for  a  legitimate  lark  and  charge  them 
by  error  or  vindictively.  The  fear  of 
blackmailing  by  the  police  is,  I  think,  the 
one  valid  objection.  Possibly  it  can  be 
met  by  a  much  wider  use  of  women  po- 
lice; the  second  objection  of  the  poor  de- 
fenseless girl,  wrongly  charged,  leaves 
me  quite  unmoved.  Again  the  remedy 
is  in  the  girl's  own  hands.  But,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  the  police  are  so  afraid  of 
making  a  mistake  that,  almost  in  every 
case  where  there  is  a  doubt,  they  do  not 
charge. 

Those — again   I   must  add   especially  wo- 
men— opposed  to  State  interference  in  these 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  137 

matters  must  ask  themselves  on  what  grounds 
their  opposition  is  based:  should  we  not  con- 
sider the  health  of  society  in  the  present  and 
the  future  well-being  of  the  race  as  more 
important  than  our  personal  distaste  and  intel- 
lectual dislike  of  interference?  Even  liberty 
must  not  take  up  a  disproportionate  amount  of 
space  in  our  view.  My  own  belief  in  the  effi- 
cacy of  making  right  doing  as  simple  as  is  pos- 
sible by  lessening  temptation,  is  based  on  what 
life  has  taught  me,  that  the  fundamental  char- 
acter of  people  is  not  greatly  alterable,  but  that 
the  alteration  of  their  circumstances  will  cer- 
tainly influence  the  effect  and  working  of  their 
capacities  and  instincts.  The  buttercup  which 
is  tall  with  a  flower  at  the  end  of  a  high  firm 
stalk  and  leaves  with  slender  spike  fingers,  if  it 
grows  in  an  open  meadow,  becomes  a  stunted 
flower  on  a  short  stem,  and  its  leaves  form 
squat  webs,  in  order  to  force  its  growth  on  a 
close-cropped  lawn.  The  experience  of  the 
American  Army  shows  us  that  to  cut  off  oppor- 
tunity and  suggestion  of  temptation,  the  incen- 
tives to  libidinous  imagination,  is  to  alter  char- 
acter more  than  everyone  recognizes.  When  I 
think  of  this  achievement,  gained  in  so  short  a 
time  and  with  so  simple  means,  I  confess  I  lose 


138       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

patience  with  the  opposition  raised  by  the  wo- 
men of  this  country  against  every  attempt 
at  legislative  interference  with  prostitution. 
Nothing  can  be  done  thoroughly  because  of  this 
hindering  folly.  There  really  is  no  limit  to 
women's  sentimental  egoism  and  their  blindness 
in  turning  from  facts. 

We  pray  in  our  churches  "lead  us  not  into 
temptation,"  but  we  leave  our  streets  crowded 
with  temptations.  Surely  this  is  stupid  negli- 
gence and  worse.  Remove  the  temptations, 
and  as  a  nation  we  shall  be  delivered  from  evil. 


VI 

Now,  a  friend  who  has  read  this  chapter  up 
to  this  point,  objects  that  I  am  laying  too  great 
stress  on  one  aspect  of  the  problem,  bringing 
forward  with  undue  insistence  the  importance 
of  restricting  prostitution — the  removal  of  the 
woman  tempter  as  the  only  practical  way  to 
prevent  the  spread  of  sexual  diseases.  She 
does  not,  I  think,  like  my  dismissal  of  conscious 
moral  striving  from  a  principal  place  in 
my  scheme  of  reformation.  That,  at  least, 
I  gather  from  what  she  has  said  to  me. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  139 

Stronger,  however,  than  this  feeling,  is,  I  am 
sure,  an  unconscious,  or  at  any  rate  an  unac- 
knowledged, irritation  at  what  she  feels  to  be  a 
failure  on  my  part  to  blame  men;  I  say  too  lit- 
tle about  their  weakness  and  their  lust. 

I  grant  this.  In  the  first  place  I  am  con- 
vinced of  the  folly  of  preaching  to  anyone. 
Then,  as  I  am  always  asserting,  I  believe  in  the 
continuous  responsibility  of  woman,  and,  there- 
fore, if  I  am  to  be  honest,  I  must  accept  here  as 
in  all  relations  between  the  sexes,  the  validity 
of  the  man's  plea  that  rings — yes,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  ring — through  the  centuries:  "The 
woman  tempted  me."  We  are  dealing  with 
forces  that  I  do  not  believe  can  be  set  aside, 
forces  active  long  before  human  relations  were 
established,  which  press  on  women  back  and 
back  through  the  ages.  Woman  possesses  the 
sacred  right  of  protecting  man,  it  is  a  duty  im- 
posed upon  her  by  nature,  and  one  that  she  can- 
not safely  escape.  Let  me  assert  that  this  is 
no  sentimental  statement.  The  essential  fact 
in  every  relationship  of  the  sexes  is  the  wo- 
man's power  over  the  man,  and  it  is  the  misuse 
of  that  power  that  leads  to  all  prostitution. 


140       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

VII 

I  want  now,  in  a  final  section  of  this  chap- 
ter, to  consider,  as  fully  as  the  limits  of  my 
space  will  allow,  the  outside  facts  of  prostitu- 
tion— that  is,  the  popular  view  on  the  subject. 

Externally,  prostitution  exhibits  two  fac- 
tors: lust  in  men  and  a  dependent  condition 
among  women,  which  makes  them  surrender 
themselves  as  victims  to  this  lust.  This  is  the 
accepted,  sentimental,  and  picturesque  descrip- 
tion: a  sort  of  compound  of  sinfulness  and 
pathos,  making  a  draught,  if  the  truth  is  faced, 
not  always  altogether  unpleasing  to  women,  a 
fact  which  surely  accounts  for  the  excitement 
and  veiled  pleasurable  curiosity  with  which  the 
subject  usually  is  approached.  For  the  lust, 
men  are  held  responsible,  and  the  chaste  char- 
acters of  women  are  held  up  in  contrast.  Now, 
it  is  this  view  of  the  matter  which  affords  prosti- 
tution one  of  its  most  certain  opportunities  of 
permanency:  also  it  gives  women,  when  they 
attack  it,  all  the  pleasing  satisfaction  of  virtue 
that  is  realized  without  effort.  At  the  same 
time,  it  explains  why  they  object  to  repressive 
measures  that  are  framed  to  end  it. 

During  the  agitation,  for  instance,  for  the  re- 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  141 

peal  of  the  40  D  Act,  women  and  women-like 
men  wallowed  in  righteousness.  Never  did  I 
hear  more  nonsense  talked  than  at  the  meetings 
I  attended  on  this  subject.  Women's  instinc- 
tive attitude  had  a  unique  chance  of  displaying 
itself,  and  one  wondered  at  the  combined  pru- 
dery and  sentiment  with  which  the  subject  was 
approached,  while  the  most  offensive  part  of 
their  conventionalism  was  the  sex-obsession, 
which  was  clotted,  like  cream  turned  sour,  on 
all  their  judgments. 

Consider  again  the  controversy  that  has 
raged  with  regard  to  the  providing  of  prophy- 
lactic outfits  to  our  men  in  the  Army  and  Navy. 
One  would  think  this  was  a  simple  matter. 
Precautions  taken  before,  or  within  a  short 
time  after  contact,  enormously  lessen  the  dan- 
gers of  infection.1  And  yet  prophylaxis  is 
objected  to  on  the  grounds  that  it  is  immoral: 
that  it  invites  to  sexual  indulgence  by  provid- 
ing immunity  from  infection.  It  is  also  held 
to  give  rise  to  a  false  security. 

i  On  this  question  the  testimony  of  the  American  Army  is 
urgent.  They  say,  "  Prophylaxis  is  under  favorable  circum- 
stances secondary  only  in  effectiveness  to  actual  prevention 
of  exposure  .  .  .  When  every  other  means  have  been  used  to 
make  contact  difficult  if  not  impossible,  prophylaxis,  while 
not  one  hundred  per  cent,  efficient,  is  invaluable  as  a  last 
resort,  and  has  contributed  a  large  share  towards  maintaining 
in  our  Army  the  lowest  venereal  disease  rate  ever  before 
known."  Article  before  cited. 


142       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Really,  it  is  difficult  to  have  patience.  Huge 
sums  are  being  spent  in  treating  these  diseases 
after  they  have  been  contracted,  but  we  must 
not  give  our  young  men  the  means  whereby 
they  may  be  prevented  from  being  contracted. 
Such  miserable  prejudice  would  be  funny,  un- 
less one  remembers  the  unconscious  cause 
which  gives  it  so  burning  a  strength. 

Some  months  ago,  during  the  war,  I  at- 
tended a  conference  to  protest  against  the  giv- 
ing of  prophylactic  outfits  to  the  overseas 
troops.  It  was  called  and  conducted  by  ladies, 
the  incarnation  of  all  the  virtues,  effervescing 
in  the  most  appalling  sentimentality  I  have 
ever  come  across,  even  at  meetings  of  women 
met  to  discuss  the  morals  of  men.  Intermin- 
able floods  of  gush!  They  talked  of  nothing 
but  purity,  its  beauty,  its  healthfulness,  its 
moral  uplifting  to  the  soul  of  the  young  man 
—its  Devil  knows  what.  Venereal  diseases 
were  nature's  punishment  for  impurity ;  to  pro- 
vide prophylaxis  was  to  insult  the  pure  youth, 
to  hurry  on  to  sin  the  youth  who  was  not  pure. 
Such  was  the  pleasing  doctrine  slowly  and  sol- 
idly defended,  while  the  real  problem  of  how 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  venereal  diseases — es- 
pecially how  to  stop  the  birth  of  infected  chil- 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  143 

dren,  was  lost  in  white  clouds  of  virtue.  And 
many  of  these  women  themselves  were  moth- 
ers !  When  I  remonstrated,  attempted  to  show 
that  the  one  fact  to  go  for  was  the  prevention 
of  infection  as  in  that  way  only  could  the  spread 
of  the  plague  be  stayed  and  the  innocent  saved 
from  suffering  with  the  sinner,  I  was  charged, 
denounced,  and  cut  to  pieces.  I  am  sure  that 
every  one  of  those  good  women  pitied  me — as  a 
matter  of  fact,  one  speaker  said  frankly  that 
she  was  very  sorry  for  my  son;  plainly  they 
were  very  doubtful  of  my  virtue.  Since  that 
day  I  have  noted  that  very  few  invitations  to 
attend  Women's  Conferences  have  been  sent  to 
me. 

This  shelving  of  the  real  facts,  of  course,  is 
unconscious  on  the  part  of  women.  The  lust 
of  men  as  the  true  cause  of  evil  is  the  one  popu- 
lar and  accepted  view  of  the  situation,  and  from 
this  it  follows  that  the  prostitute  is  the  man's 
victim,  and  as  such  must  be  protected.  This  is 
highly  pleasing;  a  view  depending,  as  it  does, 
on  the  moral  superiority  of  women,  which 
stands  them  as  Amazons  of  purity  on  the  glori- 
ous mountain  heights  of  virtue,  from  where 
they  must  send  down  climbing  ropes  and  lad- 
ders, in  the  form  of  moral  warnings  and  care- 


144       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

fully  edited  sexual  instruction,  possibly  made 
pleasing  by  cinemas  and  theater  illustrations, 
to  pull  men  up  out  of  the  deep  valleys  of  vice. 
Yet  this  view  is  singularly  untrue;  for  if  we 
inquire  into  this  question  of  men's  lust,  it  is  ob- 
vious that  not  they,  but  women,  are  the  more 
responsible.  How  often  it  is  woman  who 
awakens  this  male  lust,  fans  it  to  flame,  feeds 
it  to  keep  it  at  fever  heat.  Woman  indeed 
must  so  act,  since  nature  urges  behind ;  but  the 
prostitute  uses  this  power  without  rest,  she 
lives,  not  indeed  sacrificed  by  men's  lust,  but 
kept  alive  by  it.  Always  there  is  the  invita- 
tion— "Come  and  find  me."  To  be  provoca- 
tive is  the  one  fixed  simple  rule  of  her  life. 
Men's  lust  is  a  necessity  to  her  very  existence. 
Starving  nations  do  not  so  eagerly  await  the 
coming  of  the  food-laden  ships  which  will  keep 
them  alive  as  the  prostitute  watches  for  the 
rising  of  the  male  desire.  The  dismay  when  it 
is  reluctant  to  quicken  is  as  sincere  as  it  is  dis- 
quieting to  acknowledge.  In  the  final  result 
the  woman  may  be  the  victim,  but  at  the  start 
she  is  the  controller  of  the  assault.  She  directs 
a  continuous  attack ;  her  relation  to  men  is  com- 
parable to  that  of  a  magnet  to  a  heap  of  iron 
filings. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  145 

Most  men,  it  is  true,  are  not  only  tolerant  of 
women's  wiles;  they  like  them.  But  most  men 
succumb,  I  believe,  against  their  will,  and  often 
against  their  inclination  to  this  tyranny  of  lust. 
Men's  chivalry  as  well  as  their  pride  has  woven 
a  cloak  of  silence  around  this  question ;  this  si- 
lence has  protected  women — even  the  worst. 

There  is  such  a  thing  as  too  much  temptation 
for  a  man;  temptation  that  a  woman  has  no 
right  to  give  unless  she  knows  a  man  loves  her 
and  is  ready  to  marry  her.  It  is  damnably 
hard  on  men. 

The  truth  in  these  matters  is  not  often 
spoken.  In  spite  of  the  emancipation  upon 
which  they  pride  themselves,  in  spite  even  of 
much  precocious  experience,  almost  all  women 
lead  a  shielded  life;  vast  tracts  of  experience 
are  usually  outside  their  knowledge  or  their 
power  of  comprehension.  This  explains,  I 
think,  their  belief  in  the  old  fiction  that  the  se- 
duction of  men  by  women  does  not  take  place, 
but  all  men  know  it  goes  on  unceasingly.  Wo- 
men have  been  shielded  by  men  to  an  extent 
which  few  of  them  acknowledge.  This  is  one 
reason  why  the  best  of  them  find  it  so  difficult 
now  to  face  the  woman's  responsibility  in  these 
problems  of  sex  frankly  and  simply. 


146        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

At  one  time  this  failure  in  feminine  honesty 
on  the  part  of  so  many  advanced  women  made 
me  angry  as  it  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  conscious 
shirking.  I  know  now  I  was  wrong;  this  at- 
titude is  an  unconscious  one  and  this  makes  it 
much  more  dangerous.  I  fear  nothing  can 
change  it,  at  least,  for  a  very  long  time.  As 
women's  spiritual  temperature  rises,  their  hon- 
esty tends  to  fall,  so  much  sometimes  as  to 
freeze  their  intelligence. 

Women,  even  the  fairest  and  most  advanced, 
are  willing  to  accept  little  shame  for  a  deprav- 
ity which  their  sex  shares  equally  with  the  unes- 
capable  and  surrendering  enemy — man.  Per- 
haps the  position  is  unavoidable.  I  am  not  cer- 
tain, and  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  the  truth. 
But  no  man,  I  think,  could  satisfy  completely 
in  woman  the  craving  for  dominion,  which  the 
delusive  humility  of  his  desire  awakens.  Then 
when  a  woman  commits  the  error — from  a  wo- 
manly point  of  view — of  hunting  down  her  man 
in  haste  for  gain,  instead  of  drawing  and  bind- 
ing him  slowly  and  unconsciously  by  love,  she 
awakens  the  same  instinct  for  dominion  in  the 
man.  It  is  the  lust  to  devour,  to  crush,  quick- 
ened into  being  by  suggestion.  It  explains, 
perhaps,  the  cruelty  of  all  wild-love. 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  147 

The  position  now  in  relation  to  the  problem 
we  are  considering,  and  keeping  in  view  these 
facts  of  the  relationship  of  the  woman  and  the 
man,  should  be  clearer:  the  spread  of  venereal 
disease  must  be  attacked  by  restricting  the 
trade  of  the  prostitute.  Action  must  begin 
there.  Acknowledging  frankly  women's  power 
over  men  and  the  magnitude  of  the  temptation 
they  exercise,  we  must  accept  the  best  means  to 
control  it.  America  has  proved  what  can  be 
done.  We  want  strong  restrictive  laws  to  pre- 
vent street  soliciting  and  make  possible  the  de- 
tention of  every  infected  person. 

Why  can't  we  face  the  situation  now  when 
we  are  trying  to  tidy  up  our  social  life. 
Health,  that  was  necessary  in  war  time,  is 
surely  equally  important  in  peace?  Even  the 
prostitute,  the  professional  and  the  amateur, 
will  benefit:  restrict  the  opportunities  of  this 
easy  way  of  getting  money  and  presents  from 
men  and  other  ways  of  living  and  obtaining 
presents  must  be  resorted  to.  Thus  there  will 
be  a  finer  chance  of  reformation  than  ever  there 
was  before.  To  urge  moral  reforms,  to  talk 
sloppy  nonsense  about  liberty,  about  the  poor 
prostitute,  police  interference,  and  all  that 
humbug;  to  seek  cover  under  "the  unequal  ac- 


148       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

tion  of  the  laws  between  men  and  women,"  or 
any  other  form  of  excuse,  is  willfully  to  falsify 
the  position.  For  myself,  I  assert  without  a 
shadow  of  hesitation,  that  I  would  quite  gladly 
be  wrongfully  accused  of  street  soliciting,  sub- 
mit to  medical  examination,  be  mistakenly  de- 
tained in  prison  or  any  other  indignity,  if  by  so 
doing  I  knew  I  lessened  by  ever  so  little  the 
chance  of  a  syphilitic  child  being  born. 

Is  the  evil  to  remain  uncorrected  from  one 
generation  to  another?  That  is  the  question. 
Uncorrected  evil  multiplies  itself,  and  the  sum 
is  a  huge  national  disaster.  I  wish  passion- 
ately that  I  had  greater  powers  to  make  you  see 
what  to  me  is  so  plain.  The  mistake  has  been 
the  muddle-headed  thinking  that  sets  apart 
these  diseases  from  all  other  sicknesses  of  our 
bodies,  obscuring  the  plain  and  comparatively 
simple  question  of  cure  with  the  entirely  op- 
posed problem  of  punishment ;  a  confusion  and 
losing  of  the  way  that  leads  inevitably  into  a 
forest-tangle  of  difficulty  and  unanswerable 
questions.  And  this  heritage  of  wrong-think- 
ing has  compassed  our  feet,  binding  them  and 
throwing  us  down,  as  soon  as  we  try  to  move 
on,  always  hindering  reform  from  generation 
to  generation,  and,  until  that  entanglement 


"GIVE,  GIVE!"  149 

is  broken  through,  by  bringing  into  it  the 
light  of  honest  thinking,  the  evil  will  go  on,  un- 
checked by  our  futile  tearings  here  and  there 
at  withered  branches.  The  supporting  stem 
will  continue  to  flourish  and  the  devastating 
diseases  will  be  spread. 

(See  Sir  G.  Archdall  Reid's  letter  in  Appendix.) 


Fifth  Essay 
IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE? 

A  PLEA  FOR  PROTECTION  FOR  THE  ILLEGITIMATELY  BORN 
CHILD. 

"I  have  called  and  ye  refused;  I  have  stretched  out  my 
hand  and  no  man  regarded." — Pro.  i.  24. 


CIRCUMSTANCES,  at  different  times,  have  made 
me  think  and  care  very  deeply  about  the  injus- 
tice suffered  by  children  born  outside  the  pro- 
tection of  legal  marriage ;  it  was,  indeed,  when 
I  was  still  young — young  in  experience  and 
very  ignorant  of  life;  long  before  I  began  to 
write,  at  the  time  when  I  was  headmistress  of 
a  private  school  for  girls,  that  the  question  first 
forced  itself  into  my  consciousness. 

It  was  in  this  way.  I  was  told  suddenly  that 
the  parents  of  two  sisters  who  had  entered  my 
school  as  boarders  were  living  together  without 
being  married.  I  was  requested  to  send  the 
children  away.  I  can  recall  the  scene  through 
the  length  of  the  years;  the  excitement  of  the 

150 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     151 

parent  who  was  my  informer ;  the  kind  of  curi- 
ous enjoyment  she  displayed  in  telling  me  the 
story,  an  enjoyment  which  surprised  me  so 
much  and  angered  me  at  the  time,  but  which,  of 
course,  is  so  easy  to  account  for.  I  did  not  un- 
derstand then  those  "ever-moving  and  so  to 
speak  immortal  wishes  of  our  Unconscious,"  * 
residing  in  us  all,  ready  to  break  loose  and  force 
some  expression  in  our  daily  lives. 

I  am  glad  to  know  that  young  and  ignorant 
as  I  was  my  quick  instinctive  dislike  to  this 
moral  mud-raking  helped  and  saved  me.  I 
would  not  send  the  two  children  away,  and 
refused  to  take  any  notice  whatever  of  their 
illegal  birth. 

1  can  hear  still  the  sharp,  surprised  notes  of 
Mrs.  X's  unpleasant  voice  as  she  turned  to  me 
and  asked:  "Now,  Miss  Gasquoine  Hartley, 
what  are  you  going  to  do?"  How  great  was 
her  amazement  when  I  answered  "Nothing  1" 
She  urged  the  necessity  for  action  on  account 
of  my  position  and  for  the  welfare  of  the 
school;  pleaded  the  possible  hurt  done  to  her 
own  children  and  all  the  other  pupils.  "You 
must  be  sensible,"  she  insisted,  "and  send  these 
bastards  away.  Of  course,  it  is  very  sad  for 

i  Freud. 


152        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

them,  and  one  would  not  like  to  have  to  do  it, 
but  the  sins  of  the  parents,"  etc.,  etc.  .  .  .  You 
know  the  kind  of  beastly  hypocritical  talk.  I 
need  not  continue. 

Although  I  had  no  vivid  realization  at  that 
time  of  the  injustice  of  this  view,  anger  sprang 
up  hot  within  me.  I  was  rude.  I  told  Mrs.  X 
that  she  might  take  her  daughters  away  from 
my  school ;  that  I  was  willing  for  her  to  tell  her 
beastly  story  to  the  parents  of  all  my  other 
pupils ;  that  then  they,  if  they  wished  to  do  so, 
might  remove  their  daughters,  as  for  me,  I 
would  continue  my  school  with  two  pupils — the 
children  she  had  told  me  were  bastards. 

I  rather  fancy,  so  ignorant  was  I  then,  that 
this  was  the  first  time  I  had  heard  that  word 
"bastard,"  at  any  rate  I  felt  the  word  emotion- 
ally, in  a  sharp  and  different  way,  when  I  heard 
it  applied  to  little  children,  whom  I  knew  and 
loved,  was  caring  for  and  teaching.  In  this 
way,  the  greatest  good  was  done  me.  I  was 
made  to  feel.  And  when,  in  the  later  years  of 
my  life,  I  was  brought  by  circumstances  to  con- 
sider the  fate  of  the  illegitimately  born  child,  I 
was  prepared  already  to  understand  the  unpro- 
tected helplessness  of  these  unfortunate  little 
ones.  I  fully  realized  the  cruel  uncertainty 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    153 

that  dogs  like  a  foul  shadow  their  young  foot- 
steps, the  shame  of  their  unhonored  birth,  which 
separates  them  from  other  children  (and  a 
child  suffers  so  terribly  from  being  separated, 
dislikes  so  passionately  being  different  from 
its  companions),  shame  that  may  always  be 
brought  suddenly  as  a  hindrance  against  them, 
so  that,  even  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, they  live  in  danger;  grow  up  sensitive 
and  passionately  possessive,  because  so  many 
things  all  other  children  have  by  right,  relations 
who  really  are  relations,  a  father  and  the  right 
to  use  his  name,  a  birth-certificate  that  does  not 
record  their  parents'  sin,  are  demanded  from 
them  in  vain,  so  that  at  every  turn  they  must 
fear  the  sword  of  contempt,  against  which  they 
have  no  shield. 

II 

In  many  ways  the  position  of  the  illegiti- 
mately born  child,  always  sufficiently  bad,  has 
been  rendered  worse  under  war  conditions. 
For  one  thing,  their  number  has  increased;  the 
illegitimate  birth-rate  has  steadily  gone  up  in 
the  war  years  and  now  is  the  highest  on  rec- 
ord.1 And  although  it  is  easily  possible  to  ex- 

i  The    illegitimate   percentage   of   total    births    for   the   first 
half  of  1918  was  6  per  cent.,  in  1914  it  was  4.24  per  cent. 


154       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

aggerate  the  action  of  sexual  irregularities, 
manifestly  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this 
war  has  acted  directly  as,  indeed,  war  always 
does  in  increasing  illegitimate  births.  Indi- 
rectly also  the  effect,  after  a  war  of  such  mag- 
nitude as  this  one  has  been,  must  be  even 
greater  in  the  immediate  future  in  consequence 
of  the  resultant  inequality  of  the  sexes.  All 
other  factors  determinant  of  illegitimacy  are 
really  dependent  on  the  ratio  of  the  number  of 
unmarried  males  capable  of  paternity  to  the 
number  of  unmarried  women  capable  of  mater- 
nity in  the  community  at  a  given  time.  When- 
ever the  circle  of  nubile  women  surrounding  the 
virile  male  becomes  larger,  there  will  be  a  cor- 
responding increase  in  the  number  of  illegiti- 
mately born  children.1 

A  further  difficulty,  very  pressing  at  the 
present  time,  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  sup- 
ply of  reliable  foster-mothers  has  diminished 
everywhere,  especially  in  London  and  the  large 
cities.  Even  where  women  suitable  for  this 
purpose  are  still  attainable,  the  weekly  sum 
asked  for  the  child's  keep  is  so  high  that  in 
spite  of  increased  wages  and  the  raising  from 
5/-  to  10/-  of  the  maximum  amount  allowed 

i  See  article  by  Havelock  Ellis.     The  New  Statesman,  May 
25th,  1918.     Also  Prinzing,  whom  Ellis  quotes. 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     155 

against  the  father  under  an  affiliation  order, 
few  mothers  can  afford  to  pay  it  and  live  de- 
cently themselves.  The  bitter  cry  of  the 
driven  mother  frequently  is,  "Help  me  to  get 
rid  of  my  baby." 

We  have  demanded  too  much  from  the  un- 
married mother.  As  a  rule  she  is  very  young. 
She  is  faced  with  an  almost  impossible  task, 
and  often  she  is  weak  in  character,  incapable, 
without  guidance  of  so  difficult  a  duty  as  the 
up-bringing  of  the  little  creature  she  has  helped 
so  greatly  to  wrong  by  its  very  birth. 

Ill 

For  let  no  one  make  a  mistake.  There  is  a 
sin  of  illegitimacy,  which,  indeed,  I  would  em- 
phasize as  strongly  as  I  am  able.  Irresponsi- 
ble parenthood  must  always  be  immoral,  and 
the  mother's  sin  is  greater  than  is  that  of  the 
father.  I  must  insist  upon  this,  though  I 
realize  how  unpopular  such  a  view  will  be  to 
many  women.  But  the  mother,  through  her 
closer  connection  with  the  child,  must  bear  the 
deeper  responsibility  for  its  birth,  a  responsi- 
bility that  can  be  traced  back  and  back  to  the 
very  lowest  forms  of  life.  The  insect  mother 


156       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

does  not  fail  to  place  her  offspring — the  chil- 
dren she  will  never  see — in  a  position  chosen 
most  carefully  to  ensure  their  future  protec- 
tion, and  to  achieve  this  good  frequently  she 
sacrifices  her  life.  Shall  the  human  mother, 
then,  be  held  guiltless  when  she  shows  no  fore- 
thought for  the  future  of  her  child? 


IV 

The  English  law  has  always  looked  with 
great  disfavor  on  the  illegitimately  born  child. 
A  bastard  is  filius  nullius,  "nobody's  child." 
He  cannot  be  legitimized  even  on  the  sub- 
sequent marriage  of  his  parents.  In  Scot- 
land this  injustice  is  not  found.  There  (as 
also  in  every  other  civilized  land  except  our 
own)  the  child  becomes  legitimized  by  the  sim- 
ple natural  process  of  the  father  marrying  the 
mother.  Can  the  cruelty  of  our  English  law 
have  any  positive  value?  It  is  difficult  to  think 
so.  At  common  law  the  illegitimate  can  have 
no  guardian,  he  has  no  relations  and  no  rights 
of  inheritance ;  he  is  given  unprotected  into  the 
custody  of  his  mother,  and  until  the  age  of  four- 
teen is  wholly  in  her  power. 

Here  we  have  a  clear  duty,  and  another  case 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    157 

of  the  urgent  need  of  a  readjustment  of  our 
moral  attitude,  of  a  change  in  our  laws  and  in 
our  judgments  strictly  parallel  to  several  we 
have  considered.  Once  more  I  am  convinced 
of  the  poverty,  and  selfishness,  and  the  immor- 
ality of  our  views.  Nor  do  I  find  great  im- 
provement to-day  over  yesterday.  There  is 
much  talk  and  some  tinkering,  but  though  our 
judgments  are  less  harsh,  still  we  are  choked 
with  the  weeds  of  false  sentiment  and  feminine 
egoism.  We  fail  to  attack  straight  and  think 
boldly. 

The  sin  of  illegal  parenthood  is  really  a  col- 
lective concern:  to  turn  our  backs  on  the  pit- 
iable plight  of  these  children,  to  refuse  to  fulfill 
our  duties  toward  them,  is  to  leave  them  en- 
tirely to  those  who  are  often  least  fitted  to  help 
them,  and  also  to  open  up  direct  ways  to  every 
kind  of  wickedness.  And  it  follows,  almost 
necessarily,  if  we  accept  this  view  of  our  collec- 
tive responsibility,  that  the  greatest  danger  in 
the  present  position  arises  out  of  our  selfish 
plan  of  leaving  these  children  unprotected  in 
the  hands  of  their  mothers,  giving  them  no 
other  legal  relations,  making  no  fixed  provision 
for  their  guardianship,  allowing  each  mother  to 
do  as  she  likes;  to  establish  paternity  or  leave 


158       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

the  child  unfathered,  to  keep  the  child  with  her 
or  give  it  into  the  care  of  strangers,  to  make 
any  kind  of  arrangements,  good,  bad,  or  none 
at  all,  for  its  education  and  upbringing.  And 
what  makes  it  the  more  intolerable  is  the  indif- 
ference of  almost  all  of  us  to  what  is  done,  or  is 
not  done,  by  the  mother.  The  subject  is  diffi- 
cult and  unpleasant :  illegitimacy  is  wicked  and, 
therefore,  must  not  be  talked  about.  If  any 
case  comes  to  our  notice,  we  hush  it  up.  We 
are  too  selfish  and  lazy  to  attack  the  deep  causes 
of  the  evil — to  remove  temptation;  instead,  we 
directly  encourage  evil;  we  place  the  illegiti- 
mately born  child  in  a  position  of  such  disad- 
vantage that  its  future  existence  is  jeop- 
ardized. 

V 

You  will  probably  say  that  I  am  focusing 
all  attention  on  the  illegitimate  mother,  and  am 
not  considering  the  responsibility  of  the  illegiti- 
mate father.  I  grant  this,  and  I  am  doing  it 
with  fixed  intention.  I  want  to  consider  the 
problem  of  illegitimacy  from  this  definite,1  and 

i  In  an  article  which  appeared  in  Maternity  and  Child 
Welfare,  in  1918,  I  first  brought  this  question  forward:  the 
article  was  in  answer  to  a  discussion  which  had  previously 
taken  place  in  that  useful  and  excellent  little  journal  on  the 
Unmarried  Mother  and  her  Child.  I  shall  use  some  portion 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    159 

as  I  am  aware,  restricted  point  of  view,  care- 
fully and  very  thoroughly  to  look  at  it  from 
this  one  side  only,  in  order  to  show  others,  if  I 
can,  what  I  have  found  to  be  true:  the  urgent 
need  there  is  to  take  the  illegitimately  born 
child  from  its  mother's  authority.  I  would 
refer  my  readers  to  my  other  books  and  writ- 
ings, where  again  and  again  I  set  forth,  as 
urgently  as  I  know  how,  the  drastic  changes  I 
would  advocate  in  our  bastardy  and  affiliation 
laws,  in  order  to  bind  the  illegitimate  father  to 
his  duty  and  thus  prevent  profligacy  being  as 
easy  as  to-day  it  is.  I  do  not  want  to  go  over 
this  ground  again.  But  mark  this :  the  stigma 
attaching  to  the  fatherhood  of  all  illegitimate 
children  is,  at  present,  the  strongest  direct  cause 
of  neglect  of  his  duties  by  the  man;  his  failure 
to  stand  by  the  mother  and  pay  for  the  support 
of  the  child.  He  may  be  willing  to  do  his  duty 
in  both  these  ways,  but  not  if  it  involves  the 
abandonment  of  his  entire  career.  With  pub- 
lic opinion  so  determined,  immoral,  irresponsi- 
ble conduct  is  almost  inevitable.  But  this 
opens  up,  of  course,  a  whole  series  of  different 
questions,  which,  for  the  reasons  I  have  just 
set  forth,  I  do  not  try  to  answer,  rather  pur- 

of  what  I  then  said  in  this  essay,  because  I  think  my  argu- 
ments would  b«  weakened  if  I  tried  k>  re-write  them. 


160        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

posely  neglecting  the  second  illegitimate  par- 
ent, the  father,  so  as  better  to  focus  attention 
on  the  evils  arising  from  the  existing  unpro- 
tected relations  between  the  mother  and  the 
child. 

And  I  would  urge  further,  with  all  the 
power  that  I  have,  the  need  for  considering 
this  aspect  of  the  problem,  for  it  is  one  that  is 
very  much  neglected.  I  know  it  is  very  un- 
popular with  the  majority  of  those  who  care 
most  earnestly  about  the  unmarried  mother. 

It  is  to  be  wished  that  this  question  also  could 
be  approached  free  from  all  falseness  of  mod- 
ern feminist  sentimentality.  The  great  hin- 
drance to  straight  thinking  is  the  same  here  as 
in  so  many  other  of  the  moral  problems  we  have 
been  considering:  that  desire  for  personal  pos- 
sessions, which  so  often  is  a  treachery  against 
the  universal  good.  I  care  for  nothing  really 
except  the  saving  of  the  child,  and  I  cannot  re- 
gard the  child  as  the  possession  of  the  mother. 
So  many  women  seem  to  take  for  themselves 
the  right  to  claim  power  over  a  child  by  virtue 
of  the  suffering  through  which  they  passed  to 
bring  it  into  the  world;  although  surely  this 
should  be  denied  when  conception  takes  place 
carelessly  and  without  any  kind  of  forethought 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    161 

for  the  birth  that  may  follow.  I  will  not,  how- 
ever, wait  to  say  more,  my  position  will,  I  hope, 
become  plainer  as  I  proceed.  It  is  an  assertion 
of  the  child's  right  to  special  protection  and 
care  in  order  that  it  may  be  saved  from  the 
cruel  injustice  of  having  to  pay  the  penalty  of 
its  mother's  carelessness  and  lack  of  maternal 
responsibility.1 

VI 

Since  the  law  of  1834  a  woman  has  been  le- 
gally liable  to  maintain  her  natural  child  until 
it  reaches  the  age  of  sixteen.  She  is  allowed 
to  establish  paternity,  and,  if  she  can  do  this, 
to  obtain  a  maintenance  order  against  the 
father,  the  maximum  amount  now  allowed 
being  10/-  a  week,  which  sum  is  to  be  paid  until 
the  child  reaches  the  age  of  sixteen.  ISut  the 
mother  is  not  compelled  to  take  this  course,  in- 
deed, she  is  hindered  from  doing  so  in  every 
possible  way,  both  by  the  many  absurd  difficul- 
ties of  the  law  and  the  expense  of  the  summons. 
And  this  is  the  cause  of  clear  injustice  to  the 
child,  whose  right  to  a  father  and  to  support 
from  him  ought  not  to  be  dependent  on  the 
caprice  of  the  mother,  whose  desire  is  often  to 

i  T  do  not  include  the  father  here,  because  under  the  English 
law  the  mother  is  the  only  parent. 


162       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

protect  the  man  rather  than  to  do  justice  to  the 
child.  For  this  reason  the  establishment  of 
paternity  should  be  compulsory  on  the  mother 
or  her  relations  as  it  now  is  in  Norway.  Every 
child  has  a  right  to  a  father  as  well  as  to  a 
mother. 

The  ante-natal  conditions  of  these  babies  are 
obviously  of  the  very  worst.  All  those  months 
when  a  woman  most  requires  special  rest,  spe- 
cial quiet,  and,  in  particular,  special  mental  re- 
pose, will  be  spent  in  anxiety  and  fear.  In  too 
many  cases  the  girl  has  to  keep  herself,  and  it 
is  mighty  difficult  to  get  a  job  without  a  char- 
acter. And,  here,  let  me  point  out  to  those 
who  believe  vaguely  that  a  "love-child"  is  a 
finer  type  than  other  children,  that  this  is  true 
only  in  so  far  as  the  atmosphere  in  which  the 
mother  spends  her  pregnancy  is  one  of  love 
and  undisturbed  calm.  Do  let  us  face  the  facts 
of  the  situation. 

Often  the  baby  is  born  wherever  the  driven 
mother  can  find  shelter,  the  baby's  interests  in 
the  matter  being  certainly  of  no  account  then 
or  later.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law  the  child  is 
without  rights  and  belongs  to  no  one.  In  the 
eyes  of  our  Christian  society  he  is  a  "branded 
outcast,"  in  the  eyes  of  his  mother  too  often  he 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    163 

is  but  a  mark  of  her  shame:  conditions  of  injus- 
tice to  the  child  that  must  too  often  result  in  the 
growing  up  of  a  poor  type  of  child. 

It  has  been  found  that  illegitimates  at  birth 
are  quite  as  hardy  as  legitimate  children;  they 
would  even  seem  to  be  born  stronger,  since  they 
die,  unlike  the  legitimate,  more  frequently  in 
the  second  month  than  the  first ;  and  more  fre- 
quently in  the  third  than  in  the  second  month. 
The  deferred  and  insufficient  regulation  of  the 
child's  diet,  the  frequent  failure  on  the  part  of 
the  father  to  provide  the  means  of  support,  the 
not  uncommon  indifference  on  the  part  of  the 
mother  towards  her  child's  welfare,  and  the  ne- 
cessity of  placing  the  child  in  cheap  care,  are 
the  chief  causes  of  the  high  mortality  rates 
among  illegitimate  children. 

Even  in  the  few  fortunate  cases  where  the 
maximum  alimony  is  claimed  and  granted  to 
the  mother,  there  is  no  certainty  that  the 
weekly  payments  will  be  continued  and  regu- 
larly paid  throughout  the  child's  growing  years, 
and  though  there  is  improvement  in  this  direc- 
tion since  the  Affiliation  Orders  Act,  1914,  and 
the  appointment  of  a  Collecting  Officer,  there 
is  still  far  too  easy  opportunity  for  the  escape 
of  a  shirking  father.  The  law  takes  no  cog- 


164       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

nizance  of  the  fact  that  in  the  majority  of  cases 
it  is  an  absolute  impossibility  for  the  mothers, 
even  with  the  best  will  in  the  world,  unassisted, 
to  place  their  children  in  proper  conditions  for 
their  up-bringing.  At  present,  with  no  au- 
thorized person  to  supervise  the  mother  and 
check  her  absolute  control,  to  see  how  she 
spends  the  alimony,  where  she  places  the  child, 
what  education  it  has,  what  prospects  of  grow- 
ing into  an  effective  adult;  too  often  the  child 
never  reaches  maturity  and  its  case  is  often 
worse  if  it  does  survive ;  its  home  changed  from 
one  place  to  another,  sometimes  with  the 
mother,  sometimes  boarded  out  with  irresponsi- 
ble people,  or  adopted  with  a  premium,  it  is 
liable  to  gross  neglect  and  the  most  far-reach- 
ing and  incurable  perversions  of  character. 

We  have  reached  this  truth  then.  The  ur- 
gent duty  that  rests  with  the  law  and  with  us 
all  is  the  duty  of  taking  action  to  prevent  as  far 
as  it  is  possible,  and  in  every  way  that  we  can, 
the  penalty  of  its  illegitimate  birth  being  paid 
by  the  child. 

VII 

Now,  this  is  not  going  to  be  done  as  easily  as 
it  may  seem;  and  before  it  can  be  done,  in  my 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    165 

opinion,  we  shall  have  to  clear  our  minds  from 
a  serious  error,  to  which  we  cling  with  feminist 
tentacles  in  order  to  indulge  the  sentiment  so 
passionately  clung  to  by  women-reformers  of 
the  mother's  right  to  her  child. 

You  will  have  noted  how  strongly  I  have  in- 
sisted on  illegitimacy  being  the  sin  of  the  par- 
ents— of  the  mother  even  more  than  of  the 
father — >and  have  refused  to  use  the  word  in 
connection  with  the  child.  I  have  done  this,  as 
must  already  be  plain,  for  a  clear  reason.  I 
wished  to  mark  the  separation  of  the  child  from 
its  parents'  sin.  I  did  not  do  it  from  a  per- 
verse refusal  to  accept  what  is  usually  ac- 
cepted. Clearly  it  is  absurd  to  brand  the  child 
"illegitimate,"  since  it  can  never  be  the  fault  of 
any  child  that  its  parents  brought  it  into  the 
world.  Let  us  talk,  if  you  like,  of  illegitimate 
mothers,  also  of  illegitimate  fathers,  but  never 
again  of  the  illegitimate  child.  The  penalty  of 
the  parents'  sin  must  not  be  paid  by  the  child. 
I  cannot  emphasize  this  too  often  or  too 
strongly. 

The  child  must  be  saved  by  special  protec- 
tion. 

Now,  it  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  by  all 
modem  reformers  that  the  best  way  to  do  this 


166       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

and  to  serve  the  interests  of  the  child  is  to  make 
even  closer  than  it  is  at  present  the  connection 
of  the  mother  and  the  child,  keeping  them  more 
certainly  together,  except  in  the  few  cases  when 
such  a  course  is  clearly  absolutely  impossible, 
and  under  all  circumstances  regarding  the  sep- 
aration of  any  mother  from  her  baby  as  "an 
exceptional  and  deplorable  necessity."  1 

What  I  have  said  already  will  make  it 
abundantly  evident  that  I  cannot  accept  this 
view.  I  feel  convinced  that  it  is  founded  on 
a  feeling  of  sentiment  for  the  mother  rather 
than  on  a  desire  for  justice  to  the  child.  This 
tendency  to  confuse  two  separate  issues  has 
been  marked  in  all  the  numerous  recent  discus- 
sions of  the  unmarried  mother.  I  have  heard 
the  strongest  indignation  expressed  by  femin- 
ist speakers  whose  sentiment  bubbles  from 
them  like  a  pan  of  porridge  boiling  over. 
"The  child  should  be  brought  up  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  mother's  love" ;  "Mother  and  child 
should  not  be  separated,"  this  is  the  opinion 
repeated  again  and  again,  and  always  without 
qualification  as  to  the  character  of  the  mother. 
Even  those  few  workers  who  realize  the  situa- 
tion much  more  as  it  presents  itself  to  me,  from 

i  See  Pamphlet  issued  by  the  National  Council  for  the  Un- 
married Mother  and  her  Child,  page  3. 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     167 

the  standpoint  of  the  child's  welfare,  and  there- 
fore advocate  the  placing  of  all  illegitimately 
born  children  under  "authorized  protective 
oversight,"  yet  cling  to  the  sentiment  that  it  is 
"best  for  the  child  to  remain  with  its  mother." 
They  apprehend  the  difficulty  of  the  mother's 
character — or  rather  want  of  character — but 
they  do  not  take  the  necessary  bold  step  out  of 
this  net  of  sentiment,  and  face  the  truth  that, 
in  many  cases,  the  first  and  great  enemy  from 
whom  those  ill-used  little  ones  have  to  be  pro- 
tected is  their  mother. 

Unmarried  mothers  are  overwhelmingly 
preponderant  among  the  frivolous  and  weak- 
willed.  This  will  be  an  unpopular  statement 
to  feminist  sentiment:  few  women  are  honest  in 
facing  this  question,  though  probably  they  do 
not  know  that  they  are  dishonest.  We  women 
need  to  be  more  careful  in  accepting  the  over- 
hasty  view  that  these  illegitimate  mothers  in 
any  large  numbers  are  good  girls  who  have  been 
led  astray  by  men.  This  view,  once  held  by  me 
in  common  with  most  women,  I  have  been  com- 
pelled to  give  up.  Seduction  cannot,  I  am 
sure,  be  accepted  without  very  great  caution  as 
a  common  cause  for  illegitimate  births.  My 
experience  has  taught  me  that  nervous  insta- 


bility,  the  result  often  of  monotonous  or  too  ex- 
hausting work,  leading  quickly  to  a  desire  for 
excitement  and  effort  to  escape  dullness,  as 
also  love  of  finery  and  joy  in  receiving  pres- 
ents, are  the  principal  motives  that  lead  girls 
into  illegal  relations.  And  what  I  want  to 
make  plain  is  this:  a  characterless  girl,  irre- 
sponsible, without  care  for  the  future,  drifting, 
snatching  at  pleasure,  taking  the  easiest  course 
— this  is  the  girl  who  bears  a  child  illegitimately 
and  this  is  the  girl  incapable  of  becoming  a 
good  mother. 

This  characterless  irresponsibility  of  the  av- 
erage unmarried  mother  is  known  to  every 
social  worker.  The  difficulty  is  dwelt  upon  in 
the  reports  of  rescue  homes  and  police-workers. 
I  have  read  many  separate  articles  which  refer 
to  it.  "Temperamental  instability,"  as  it  is 
fittingly  called,  inevitably  makes  capable  moth- 
erhood impossible.  True,  these  unmarried 
mothers  may,  and  frequently  do,  "pour  out  a 
wealth  of  pent-up  affection  on  the  child,"  but 
often  she  will  do  this  for  half-an-hour  and  neg- 
lect it  for  days  afterwards.  Those  who  talk 
here  of  the  "mother's  right  to  her  child"  are 
being  misled  by  sentiment.  Women  of  the 
prostitute  type,  whose  love  and  tears  are  on  the 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    169 

surface,  must  not  be  j  udged  too  tenderly  as  ca- 
pable of  great  improvement.  The  child  may 
"steady  the  mother  for  a  time,"1  but  the  moth- 
er will  probably  by  her  carelessness,  bad  exam- 
ple, helplessness  and  inefficiency  unsteady  the 
child  for  life. 

And  it  is  this  that  matters.  Yes,  matters  to 
you,  my  readers,  and  to  me  and  to  us  all.  The 
child  illegitimately  born  is  to  become  a  future 
citizen ;  and  it  is  not  good  for  society  to  permit 
its  mother  to  endanger  its  future.  We — the 
other  members  of  Society — must  object  to  such 
a  possibility,  we  cannot  allow  it  to  be  tolerated 
on  any  grounds  of  sentiment.  We  object 
from  humane  care  for  the  child,  but  also  from 
patriotism  and  enlightened  self-interest;  for 
the  consequences  of  the  mother's  unguided 
mistakes  in  training  must  fall  on  someone,  and 
in  this  country  they  fall  chiefly  on  the  rate- 
payers. 

I  shall  not  wait  to  give  you  the  many  and 
overwhelming  facts  and  figures  that  I  could 
bring  forward  in  support  of  these  statements. 
To-day  all  the  pitiful  statistics  of  illegitimate 
births  are  widely  known;  at  least  they  are 

i  These  and  similar  statements  are  brought  forward  as 
reason  for  keeping  mother  and  child  together.  I  need 
scarcely  say  they  leave  me  unmoved. 


known  intellectually,  though  I  doubt  their 
being  known  emotionally,  which  is  quite  an- 
other matter  and  whips  our  indifference  into 
action.  Only  the  workers  in  the  darkest  places 
of  our  great  cities  know  how  large  illegitimacy 
looms  as  a*  factor  in  the  social  disintegration 
that  leads  to  the  prison,  to  the  mad-house,  to 
the  hospitals,  to  the  casual  wards,  and  to  the 
streets.  Only  the  eye  of  the  scientist  can  vi- 
sion in  the  relation  of  the  unhonored  child  to  its 
mother  the  seed  of  that  evil  which  one  day  shall 
become  the  dishonor  of  the  dishonorable  man.1 

VIII 

I  can  foresee  an  objection  that  will  be  made: 
it  will  be  urged  that  much  of  what  I  say  of  the 
unfitness  of  the  average  unmarried  mother  to 
train  her  child  is  equally  applicable  to  the  aver- 
age married  mother.  True:  I  agree.  There 
is,  however,  this  all  important  difference.  The 
child  of  the  married  woman  is  not  placed,  either 
by  circumstances  or  by  the  law,  in  the  power  of 
its  mother.  It  has  a  second  parent :  even  if  the 
father  is  dead  and  its  mother  is  the  only  parent, 
the  home  is  watched  by  grandmother,  by  grand- 

i  See  an  excellent  article  on  "  The  Love  Child  in  Germany 
and  Austria,"  English  Review,  June,  1912. 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    171 

father — perhaps  by  four  grandparents,  by 
sharp-eyed  aunts  and  encouraging  uncles; 
probably  there  are  brothers  and  sisters,  cousins, 
great-aunts  and  great-cousins.  There  will  also 
be  a  more  or  less  extensive  circle  of  criticizing 
friends.  Thus  the  baby  is  surrounded  from  its 
birth  by  watchers — a  veritable  host  of  unpaid 
inspectors.  Now,  you  see  my  point  and  un- 
derstand the  immense  difference.  It  is  the  ter- 
rible loneliness  of  the  child  born  illegitimately, 
outside  the  safe  publicity  of  marriage,  without 
relations,  belonging  by  right  to  nobody,  that 
makes  the  power  given  by  law  to  its  mother  so 
dangerous. 

That  is  why  I  would  plead,  with  every  power 
that  I  have,  that  we  leave  sentiment  behind  us 
as  we  approach  this  question.  We  are  a  hope- 
lessly sentimental  nation,  and  we  cling  to  plati- 
tudes as  a  half  naked  beggar  will  cling  to  his 
tattered  shirt.  We  collect  moral  antiquities. 
Inherited  and  worn-out  ideas,  psychological 
fossils,  moral  survivals,  these  must  be  treasured 
only  in  romance;  they  must  be  deleted  from 
life.  Every  moral  rule,  every  sentiment,  as 
also  every  institution,  must  be  tested,  from  per- 
iod to  period,  to  see  if  it  works  still  in  a  practi- 
cal and  healthful  direction  to  help  the  individ- 


172        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

ual  to  do  right  and  for  the  betterment  of  the 
race. 

IX 

We  English  are  sentimental. 

Perhaps  it  is  worth  while  to  wait  a  moment 
to  ask  the  cause  of  this  deeply-acting  English 
sentimentality.  It  rests  on  two  qualities,  our 
moderation  and  our  exclusiveness.  But  the 
precise  causes  of  these  qualities  are  not  so  cer- 
tain ;  the  English  are  romantic,  but  our  moder- 
ation prevents  us  being  too  impulsively  roman- 
tic; on  the  other  hand,  our  homely  feeling  for 
reality  does  not  lead  us  to  investigate  reality 
too  deeply.  We  dislike  the  sordid  and  the 
"not  nice."  We  are  imaginative  and  passion- 
ate, but  our  imaginations  and  passions  are  care- 
fully balanced  by  reasons  and  calm  reflections. 
We  are  kindly,  but  not  to  the  extent  of  saint- 
like self -sacrifice ;  also  we  are  selfish,  but  again 
not  to  the  extent  of  brutal  egoism.  Our  exclu- 
siveness makes  "Birds  of  a  feather  flock  to- 
gether" and  at  the  same  time  fosters  our  ignor- 
ance of,  and  indifference  to,  the  existence  of 
any  other  species  of  bird.  Thus  the  good  know 
nothing  of  the  bad ;  the  people  who  drink,  play 
bridge,  dance  and  have  a  fashionably  good  time, 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    173 

for  instance,  have  hardly  heard  of  the  meeting- 
frequenting,  soul-worrying  reformers  who  live 
in  Garden  Suburbs.  Thus  in  England  there  is 
very  little  to  disturb  a  comfortable  feeling ;  pro- 
tected by  our  moderation  and  exclusiveness, 
there  is  no  force  inside  from  ourselves,  or  out- 
side from  observers,  to  make  us  revise  our  posi- 
tion, consider  the  right  or  the  wrong  of  our 
moral  attitude,  to  give  up  our  illusions  of  com- 
fort. That  is  one  reason  why  we  so  often 
stand  aside  from  the  ugly  reality  of  things  as 
they  are,  "hold  high  the  banner  of  the  ideal," 
which  is  the  untruthful  way  in  which  we  allude 
to  things  as  we  want  them  to  be. 


X 

Now,  all  this  leads  up  very  directly  to  the 
special  aspect  of  the  problem  we  are  consider- 
ing. We  have  to  realize  just  what  are  the  re- 
sults likelv  to  follow  from  the  close  relation- 

m 

ship  of  mother  and  child  in  the  case  of  the  ille- 
gitimately born.  Personally,  I  am  certain 
that  in  most  cases  the  situation  is  one  of  quite 
appalling  dangers. 

I  cannot  feel  sure  that  even  the  most  helpful 
supervision  of  the  mother,  if  she  and  her  child 


174        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

enter  a  hostel,  or  other  institution,  can,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  save  some  hurt,  if  her  char- 
acter is  unsteady,  being  given  by  her  to  the 
child.  We  are  only  just  now  coming  at  all  to 
understand  how  immensely  fateful  to  the  whole 
later  development  are  the  first  few  years  of  in- 
fant life,  and  further,  how  everything  is  col- 
ored— it  would  be  truer  to  say  "decided" — by 
the  character  and  actions  of  the  mother;  how 
any  hurt  done,  or  mistake  made  then,  can  never 
be  undone.  Even  an  unwise  expression  of  too 
fond  and  emotional  affection  may  act  to  cause 
ruin  in  the  after  years.  All  who  have  even  a 
slight  acquaintance  with  the  enlightening  work 
of  Freud,  will  know  the  folly  of  "trying  to  save 
the  illegitimate  mother  through  the  agency  of 
the  child." 

Let  me  state  the  case  quite  plainly:  There 
are  different  types  among  these  unmarried 
mothers,  just  as  there  are  among  married  moth- 
ers, some  would  be  wise  mothers  did  we  give 
them  the  necessary  help  and  opportunity,  but 
many  would  not  be  wise  mothers  under  any  cir- 
cumstances or  with  any  amount  of  help,  be- 
cause they  are  weak  in  character  and  are  inca- 
pable of  child-training.  Now,  the  problem  of 
saving  the  child  is  quite  a  different  one  in  these 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     175 

opposite  cases:  in  the  one  instance  everything 
ought  to  be  done  to  keep  the  child  with  its 
mother,  in  the  other  the  one  safeguard  is  to  keep 
the  child  wholly  out  of  the  mother's  power. 

I  state  sadly,  but  without  hesitation,  and 
from  my  own  experience,  that  in  innumerable 
cases  the  salvation  of  the  child  depends  more 
than  anything  else  on  its  complete  separation 
from  the  mother.  I  cannot  countenance  senti- 
ment that  blinds  our  intelligence.  How  can  it 
be  wise  to  recommend  in  cases  where  the  char- 
acter of  the  mother  "seems  to  warrant  a  sepa- 
ration," that  "periodic  visiting  by  the  mother 
needs  to  be  fostered."  Again,  what  must  hap- 
pen if  the  baby  is  in  the  care  of  the  trained 
nurse  by  day,  but  at  night  is  given  up  to  the  un- 
trained and  often  untrainable  mother,  who  goes 
out  to  work  but  returns  to  the  hostel  to  sleep?"  2 

You  will  tell  me  the  mother  wants  to  have 
the  child.  That  is  right  and  good  from  one 
point  of  view — that  of  the  mother;  but  from  the 
other — the  point  of  view  of  the  child — it  cannot 
work  out  well.  The  child  switches  hither  and 
thither  between  various  treatments  and  quite 

1  Article  on  "The   Illegitimate  Child,"  Maternity  and  Child 
Welfare,  September,   1917.     One  of  the   articles   1   was   asked 
to  answer. 

2  This   is   the  plan  advocated  by  the  National   Council  for 
Unmarried  Mothers. 


176        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

opposite  influences.  And  with  the  child's  ter- 
rible candor  it  shows  the  hurt  it  is  suffering  and 
says  always,  in  effect,  though  not  in  words,  "I 
wish  you  would  all  agree  as  to  how  you  want  me 
to  grow  up." 

I  may  state  the  question  in  this  way:  Do 
we  want  the  child  to  grow  up  like  its  mother  or 
do  we  want  to  save  it  from  being  like  her? 

To  answer  this  simple  question  will  help  us 
more  than  at  first  we  may  see.  Frankly,  our 
confusion  here  in  fixing  what  we  want  is  the 
cause  which,  in  my  opinion,  more  than  anything 
else  must  bring  failure  to  what  is  being  done, 
and  being  proposed  to  be  done,  to  help  the  ille- 
gitimately born  child.  Our  sentiment  causes 
us  to  confuse  what  is  good  for  the  mother  with 
what  is  good  for  the  child,  and,  because  of  this, 
we  are  failing  to  grapple  with  the  most  warring 
element  in  the  whole  difficult  problem  of  saving 
the  child;  we  shall  have  to  face  and  deal  suc- 
cessfully with  this  certain  fact  of  the  very  com- 
mon unfitness  of  the  unmarried  mother,  before 
we  can  do  the  one  simple  and  right  thing  and 
prevent  the  child  from  having  to  pay  the  pen- 
alty of  its  parents'  illegitimate  act.  We  are 
brought  back  always  to  this:  the  saving  of  the 
child  as  the  one  plain  duty  before  us. 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     177 

XI 

In  a  previous  section  I  dealt  with  the  harm- 
ful way  in  which  circumstances  and  the  law, 
acting  together,  place  the  child  born  out  of 
wedlock  wholly  and  terribly  in  the  mother's 
power.  But  there  is  a  further  aspect  of  the  sit- 
uation now  to  be  considered.  I  wish  to  show 
how  destructively  that  power  may  act,  stimu- 
latexl  in  some  cases  by  an  unwise  affection  as 
well  as  in  others  where  no  mother-love  seems 
present,  and  act  for  years  to  hurt  and  even  de- 
stroy the  child.  To  establish  this  and  make  the 
facts  plainer,  I  will  now  tell  in  detail  a  few 
cases  of  illegitimate  motherhood  from  my  own 
knowledge.  You  will  see  then  exactly  what  I 
mean  and  how  dangerous  to  the  child  is  the 
power  held  by  these  unwatched  mothers;  the 
facts  of  the  case  will,  I  hope,  speak  to  you 
more  emotionally,  and  therefore  more  forcibly, 
than  any  further  statement  of  my  own  opinion. 

Case  1. — A  baby  girl  was  born  to  a  young 
mother  of  unstable  though  not  altogether  bad 
character.  The  father  teas  a  gentleman :  he  did 
not  seduce  the  girl.  lie  paid  the  expenses  of 
the  confinement  and  afterwards,  and  with  the 
mother's  consent,  placed  the  little  one  with 


178       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

good  country  people,  paying  for  her  support. 
For  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  the  baby  lived 
with  its  foster  mother  and  grew  up  a  very 
healthy  and  joyous  little  girl.  The  real  mother 
visited  the  child  and  showed  most  emotional 
love  for  her.  One  day,  without  reason  and 
without  warning,  she  took  the  child  away.  The 
foster-mother  appealed  to  the  father;  he  did  all 
in  his  power  to  have  the  child  returned,  and 
finally,  when  the  mother  refused,  said  he  would 
make  no  further  contribution  for  the  support 
of  the  child.  He  knew  the  mother  was  unfit  to 
bring  up  the  child,  but  he  could  do  nothing  to 
prevent  her  action.  The  mother  took  the  child 
to  another  town.  What  she  did  with  the  little 
one  is  not  fully  known,  but  when,  after  nine 
months,  the  foster-mother  traced  her,  she  was 
in  a  most  pitiable  condition  of  dirt  and  neglect, 
and,  what  was  much  worse,  she  was  terribly 
frightened.  Quite  plainly  she  had  been  beaten 
and  ill-used.  The  mother  was  not  poor,  so  that 
cannot  be  made  an  excuse. 

The  foster-mother  offered  now  to  adopt  the 
child  and  bring  it  up  as  her  own.  Her  offer 
was  accepted  by  the  mother,  but  with  the  pro- 
vision, which  unfortunately  was  granted,  that 
she  should  still  come  to  see  the  child.  Her 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    179 

visits  always  affected  the  child  unfavorably. 

During  the  next  three  years  the  little  girl 
found  renewed  health  and  peace  in  her  happy 
adopted  home.  Then  her  enemy — her  mother 
— again  took  her  away.  For  a  year  she  kept 
this  delicate,  nervous  and  well-brought-up  child 
with  her  in  London  under  very  adverse  circum- 
stances. Then  she  went  off,  leaving  her  daugh- 
ter,, now  five  years  old,  with  no  proper  person 
to  care  for  her  and  quite  without  means  of  sup- 
port. 

Case  2. — A  girl  of  loose  character,  but  not  a 
regular  prostitute,  found  herself  pregnant. 
She  did  not  know  certainly  who  among  her 
lovers  was  the  father,  but  she  decided  on  one 
man,  who  she  knew  was  not  the  father.  He 
was  rich  and  kind,  or  rather  as  she  told  me  "he 
was  a  softy."  Accordingly  she  told  him  the 
baby  was  his.  He  arranged  for  the  confine- 
ment, afterwards  he  took  the  baby  and  the 
mother  to  live  in  the  home  of  his  mother.  They 
were  kindly  treated  in  every  way,  and  the  baby 
flourished.  But  the  mother  was  bored  by 
goodness:  one  day  she  went  off:  she  did  not 
take  the  baby.  Unfortunately  she  left  a  let- 
ter— not  I  fear  from  conscience,  but  from  mis- 
chief and  a  desire  to  insult  goodness — telling 


180        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

the  man  she  had  tricked  him  and  he  was  not  the 
father  of  the  child.  The  man  was  angry,  dis- 
liking the  knowledge  of  his  having  been  duped; 
his  mother  was  still  more  angry.  Once  more 
the  child  was  the  sufferer.  It  was  sent  away 
from  the  happy  and  rich  home  to  an  institution. 

Case  3. — A  working-class  girl,  belonging  to 
a  respectable  country  family,  gave  birth  to  a 
baby  girl.  The  father  was  a  soldier,  but  the 
girl  did  not  know  his  name  or  where  he  was. 
During  her  confinement  and  afterward  she  re- 
mained at  home  with  her  mother  and  brother. 
The  baby  was  ailing  and  became  ill.  The 
brother  told  his  sister,  the  mother,  that  she  must 
take  it  to  the  Infirmary  in  the  neighboring 
town.  She  objected  on  the  ground  that  she 
would  have  to  go  in  with  the  baby.  However, 
the  brother  insisted  and  arranged  to  meet  her 
and  the  baby  at  the  Infirmary  gates  the  follow- 
ing evening.  His  sister  was  there,  but  not  the 
baby.  She  told  him  that  a  friend  was  going 
to  take  care  of  the  baby  for  her.  The  baby  was 
never  heard  of  again. 

Case  4- — This  time  the  mother  was  highly 
born  and  educated,  but  she  belonged  naturally 
to  the  promiscuous  type  of  lover:  she  ought  to 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     181 

have  been  a  prostitute.  She  had  many  lovers 
and  was  strongly  sexual,  not  passionate  so 
much  as  voluptuous.  By  one  of  her  lovers, 
and  by  mistake,  a  child  was  conceived,  and 
though  attempts  were  made  to  get  rid  of  the 
mistake,  a  boy  was  born,  fairly  healthy.  The 
father,  a  modern  tired  profligate,  refused  to  ac- 
cept the  responsibilities  of  his  fatherhood, 
though  he  did  not  deny  the  child  was  his,  and 
continued  as  one  of  the  lovers  of  its  mother. 
The  mother  showed  no  sign  of  maternal  love; 
the  little  one  was  much  neglected  and  probably 
would  have  died,  but,  when  about  two  months 
old,  he  was  taken  from  the  mother  and  cared 
for  and  most  tenderly  loved  by  one  of  the  wo- 
man's other  lovers.  He  left  her  as  her  indif- 
ference to  her  child  killed  his  affection,  but  he 
took  her  child  to  bring  up  as  his  own  son. 

Case  f). — A  record  of  this  very  revolting  case 
appeared  recently  in  the  daily  papers  under  the 
heading  "£8000  Rabifs  End.3'  I  copy  the 
story  as  it  was  told  in  the  "Daily  Mail":  the 
date  I  do  not  remember. 

"The  love  affair  of  a  middle-aged  painter, 
Charles  Godin,  with  his  model  Georgette  Belli, 
aged  16,  has  led  to  a  remarkable  charge 


182        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

of  murder.  Georgette  became  a  mother,  and 
when  the  painter  died  a  few  months  later  he  left 
the  child  £8000. 

"The  girl  married  a  young  man  named 
Emile  Gourdon,  and  the  baby  was  placed  in  the 
care  of  a  grandmother.  Later,  when  the 
young  mother  wished  to  get  back  her  child,  the 
grandmother  refused  to.  give  it  up  on  the 
ground  that  the  young  couple  meant  to  destroy 
it  in  order  to  inherit  the  money,  and  produced 
letters  and  telegrams  in  support  of  her  suspi- 
cion. Georgette,  however,  got  an  order  from 
a  court  for  the  surrender  of  the  baby,  and  went 
to  live  at  Marseilles  with  her  husband. 

"One  day,  while  walking  on  the  jetty,  the 
woman  appeared  to  stumble  and  the  child  fell 
into  the  sea  and  was  drowned.  The  couple 
have  been  arrested,  the  woman,  it  is  alleged, 
having  pretended  to  faint  in  order  to  make 
away  with  her  child." 

Now,  I  know  that  these  five  cases  I  have  re- 
counted are  not  exceptional,  though  some  of 
their  sordid  details  may  be  specially  disagree- 
able. Give  but  a  moment's  attention  to  the 
facts  that  stand  out,  and  at  once  you  will  grasp 
what  is  wrong.  We  are  demanding  too  much 
from  these  unmarried  mothers,  and,  by  leaving 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    183 

the  full  power  of  parenthood  in  their  weak 
hands,  are  jeopardizing  the  child's  safety;  we 
are  also  encouraging  conditions  harmful  to  so- 
ciety.    It  is  like  leaving  a  loaded  gun  in  the 
hands  of  a  little  child.     These  cases  speak  for 
themselves.     In  No.  3  and  No.  5  the  child  was 
killed  by  the  direct  act  of  the  mother;  in  the 
former  case  there  was  some  excuse  from  the 
harsh  rule  that  the  sick  baby  of  an  unmarried 
mother  cannot  be  received  into  a  hospital  unless 
the  mother  goes  in  with  it  (the  reason  of  this, 
of  course,  being  that  the  mother  will  use  this 
means  of  ridding  herself  of  the  baby)  and  will 
never  come  to  reclaim  it;  but  in  the  horrible 
case  of  No.  5  there  is  no  ray  of  excuse.     This 
case  is  especially  interesting  because  it  makes 
so  abundantly  plain  the  terrible  need  there  is 
for  the  immediate  establishment  of  safe  legal 
adoption.     In  cases  No.  2  and  No.  4  we  have 
the  curious  situation,  by  no  means  so  uncom- 
mon as  many  might  think,  of  the  wrong  man 
acting  the  part  of  father  to  an  illegitimately 
born   child;    in   the   one   case   this   was   done 
through  the  trickery  of  the  mother  and  was  but 
temporary,  the  child  suffering,   while  in  the 
other  case,  more  interesting  and  less  common, 
vicarious  fatherhood  was  voluntarily  adopted. 


184        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

I  would  ask  you  to  note  that  in  none  of  the  five 
cases  was  bad  motherhood  caused  by  poverty 
and  homelessness.  So  frequently  it  is  said: 
"Give  these  mothers  a  chance,  and  their  mother- 
love  will  blossom  like  the  rose" — or  some  simi- 
lar and  unproved  tosh.  It  is  not  true.  The 
good  mother  may  be  a  bad  mother  by  adverse 
circumstances,  this  I  acknowledge  readily,  but 
that  the  most  favorable  circumstances  can  make 
the  bad  mother  into  a  good  mother,  I  emphat- 
ically deny.  This  is  why  it  is  so  unsafe  and  so 
wrong  of  society  to  leave  the  child  unprotected 
and  unwatched,  for  the  mother  to  do  with  it 
what  she  likes. 

The  first  case,  because  it  shows  so  clearly  the 
adverse  action  of  the  mother's  influence  is,  in 
my  opinion,  most  instructive  among  the  five 
cases  I  have  given.  Such  changeableness  on 
the  mother's  part,  and  interference  with  the 
child  is  just  what  is  likely,  and  most  often  does 
take  place,  and  will  go  on  taking  place,  until 
the  law  protects  these  children  by  effective 
guardianship.  I  would  specially  point  out 
that  this  mother  was  not  in  the  least  indif- 
ferent to  her  baby.  If  you  had  talked  to 
her,  probably  your  sentiment  would  have 
burned  and  glowed  about  the  hardness  of  her 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?     185 

case  in  being  separated  from  her  baby,  and  you 
would  have  said  wonderful  platitudes  about  the 
beauty  of  a  mother's  love.  And  yet  the  shame- 
ful hurt  she  did  to  her  child  can  never  be  un- 
done. Her  undisciplined  love  was  the  cause  of 
the  child's  undoing. 

I  have  now,  I  hope,  made  it  sufficiently  plain 
why  the  illegitimately  born  child  should  no 
longer  be  considered  as  belonging  to  the 
mother,  but  should  be  recognized  as  a  member 
of  society,  and,  as  such,  entitled  to  protection, 
so  that  it  may  suffer  as  little,  and  not  as  much, 
as  is  possible  from  the  disadvantages  of  its  ille- 
gal birth.  This  is  plain  justice.  Yet  before 
it  can  be  done  we  shall  need  an  immediate  and 
great  reform  of  our  bad  and  antiquated  bas- 
tardy and  affiliation  laws.  We  shall  need  also 
a  change  of  heart. 

XII 

I  shall  be  asked  what  changes  I  would  sug- 
gest. The  answer  is  not  easy :  it  is  not  so  much 
a  question  of  altering  this  regulation  or  that,  of 
removing  hindrances  and  giving  increased  help; 
that  is  good,  but  more  is  needed:  we  want  a 
change  of  the  entire  system:  the  firm  under- 


186        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

standing  that  the  clear  aim  before  us  is  to  place 
the  child,  as  nearly  as  this  can  be  done,  in  the 
same  position  of  advantage  as  it  would  have 
had  if  it  had  not  been  illegally  born.  If  there 
must  be  punishments,  let  them  fall  on  the  par- 
ents, never  on  the  child. 

Now,  how  can  this  best  be  done?  In  the 
space  I  can  devote  here,  it  is  possible  only  to 
throw  out  a  few  suggestions. 

First,  'and  I  think  exceedingly  important, 
the  law  should  take  account  of  the  attitude  of 
the  father.  In  all  cases  where  the  paternity  of 
the  child  is  acknowledged  openly  by  the  man 
and  with  the  mother,  and  guarantees  are  given 
that  the  duties  of  both  parents  will  be  faith- 
fully fulfilled,  the  child  should  be  legitimized, 
receive  the  name  of  the  father,  be  qualified  to 
inherit  from  him,  and  in  every  way  given  the 
same  rights  as  the  legitimate  child,  even  if  the 
parents  are  unable  or  do  not  wish  to  marry. 
This  opportunity  of  right  conduct  once  given 
to  men  by  the  law,  I  believe  that  many,  who  are 
fathers  illegitimately,  would  voluntarily  take 
this  course  and  gladly  acknowledge  and  fulfill 
the  responsibilities  of  their  fatherhood. 

In  all  other  cases,  in  which  paternity  is  not 
voluntarily  acknowledged,  I  take  the  most  im- 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    187 

portant  duty  of  the  law  to  be  the  official  ap- 
pointment of  guardians.  I  believe  nothing 
else  is  so  urgently  needed  to  protect  these  fath- 
erless little  ones.  Such  guardianship1  could 
be  provided  without  great  difficulty  or  expense 
if  each  illegitimately  born  child,  not  openly  ac- 
knowledged and  willingly  provided  for  by  its 
father,  was  made  a  ward  of  the  Court  of  Sum- 
mary Jurisdiction  in  the  district  in  which  it 
lived  and  thus  placed  under  authoritative  su- 
pervision. The  child  would,  by  the  authority 
of  the  Court,  be  boarded  out  (1)  with  the 
mother  in  all  cases  where  her  health,  character 
and  previous  records  were  such  as  to  make  this 
arrangement  the  best  for  the  child,  (2}  in  hos- 
tels, cither  with  the  mother  or  without  her,  (3) 
with  paid  foster-parents,  (4)  with  adopted 
parents.  In  every  case  regular  visitation  of 
the  child  would  be  necessary,  and  the  child 
must  not  be  removed  from  one  home  to  another 
or  any  change  made  with  regard  to  it  without 
the  authority  of  the  Court,  which  shall  have 
power  (1}  to  appoint  guardians,  either  in  addi- 
tion to,  or  substitution  for  the  mother  of  the 
child;  (?)  to  approve  any  scheme  for  the  edu- 

i  Some  years  ago  the  city  of  Leipsic  started  an  admirable 
scheme  by  which  illegitimately  born  children  automatically 
became  the  wards  of  officially  appointed  guardians. 


188       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

cation  or  training  of  the  child,  and  at  all  times 
and  in  all  ways  to  exercise  authority  in  every 
matter  pertaining  to  the  child's  welfare.1 

I  would  wish  for  a  further  restriction,  which, 
however  hardly  it  may  seem  to  bear  on  the 
mother,  is,  in  my  opinion,  most  necessary  for 
safeguarding  the  child.  It  is  this:  //  the 
child  by  the  decision  of  the  Court  is  boarded  out 
with  foster  parents,  permanently  adopted  or 
placed  in  a  home  apart  from  the  mother,  no  in- 
terference or  even  visiting  by  the  mother  shall 
be  permitted  except  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Court. 

I  would  suggest  that  in  every  town  or  rural 
district  guardians  should  be  appointed  (prefer- 
ably a  man  and  a  woman)  either  paid  or  volun- 
tary, but  officially  appointed :  all  that  is  needed 
is  an  extension  of  the  duties  of  the  Collecting 
Officer,  appointed  under  the  Affiliation  Orders 
Act  of  1914.  This  officer  already  takes  out  of 
the  mother's  hands  the  work  of  collecting  the 
weekly  payments  granted  under  a  maintenance 
order,  and  he  also  has  certain  powers  of  enforc- 
ing payments  from  a  defaulting  father.  But 

i  An  excellent  scheme  has  been  drawn  up  and  issued  as  a 
pamphlet  by  "  The  National  Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children" — Occasional  Papers  V.  Illegitimate 
Children, 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    189 

at  present  his  taking  action  is  dependent  on  the 
desire  of  the  mother.  His  duties  ought  in  all 
cases  to  be  compulsory.  They  would  be  (1) 
to  help  the  mother  before  and  after  the  birth  of 
the  child;  (2)  to  seek  out  the  father  and  urge  a 
voluntary  acknowledgment  of  his  paternity, 
and,  when  this  cannot  be  gained,  to  see  that  the 
law  is  rightly  administered  so  that  full  alimony 
may  be  obtained;  (3)  to  watch  over  the  inter- 
ests of  the  child  and  see  that  the  decisions  of  the 
Court  are  carried  out  without  interference  from 
the  mother. 

The  kind  of  help  given  would  have  to  be 
varied  and  must  be  made  suitable  to  each  indi- 
vidual case,  but  every  child  would  be  a  ward  of 
the  guardians  in  the  district  in  which  it  lived, 
and  would  be  regularly  visited.  I  would  sug- 
gest further  that  there  should  be  placed  over 
these  visiting-guardians  a  Government-ap- 
pointed, permanent,  highly  salaried  official — a 
kind  of  over-guardian-parent  or  Consultant, 
who  would  supervise  the  work  of  the  ordinary 
guardians  in  difficult  cases,  and  advise  as  to 
the  best  means  of  administering  the  law. 
This  high  official  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be 
a  woman. 

Such  a  scheme  as  I  have  outlined   (briefly 


190       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

and,  I  know,  inadequately)  would  achieve  the 
three-fold  purpose  of  (1)  safeguarding  the 
child,  (2)  guiding  and  helping  the  mother,  (3) 
fastening  responsibility  on  the  father.  If 
wisely  administered  by  guardians,  acting  with 
sympathy  and  understanding,  it  could  hardly 
fail  to  achieve  the  desired  result  of  protecting 
the  child.  Every  illegitimately  born  child 
would  be  placed  in  a  position  of  safety. 

As  a  preliminary  step,  and  pending  legisla- 
tion, it  would  be  an  excellent  plan  if  groups  of 
interested  people,  or  societies,  were  to  form 
local  representative  committees  to  appoint  vol- 
untary Visiting-guardians.  By  this  means  the 
plan  could  be  tried,  and  some  kind  of  respon- 
sible and  authoritative  guardianship  at  once 
undertaken.  We  ought  to  do  this  now,  for 
death  and  suffering  to  the  little  children  are 
going  on  while  we  delay. 

There  is  no  more  for  me  to  say. 

The  saving  of  these  little  ones  is  a  plain  duty 
upon  me  and  upon  you,  my  readers.  Let  us 
clear  hardness  from  our  minds  and  sentiment 
from  our  hearts;  both  will  equally  lead  us 
astray.  The  child  is  the  real  care  of  the  State 
and  of  us  all;  it  is  the  child  who  is  dependent; 
the  child  who  has  been  sinned  against ;  the  child 


IF  A  CHILD  COULD  CHOOSE?    191 

we  have  to  protect.  Save  these  babies  from 
death  and  from  life  that  is  worse  than  death; 
give  these  children  a  right  start  in  life.  Let 
no  illegitimately  born  child  be  able  to  say  in 
after  years,  "I  have  called  and  ye  refused;  I 
have  stretched  out  my  hand  and  no  man  re- 
garded." 


Sixth  Essay 
FORESEEING  EVIL  1 

BEING  CONCERNED  WITH  PASSIONATE  FRIENDSHIPS,  AND 
HOW  RESPONSIBLE  CONDUCT  MAY  BE  ESTABLISHED  IN 
SEXUAL  RELATIONSHIPS  OUTSIDE  OF  MARRIAGE. 

"A  prudent  man  foreseeth  the  evil,  and  hideth  himself, 
but  the  simple  pass  on  and  are  punished." — Pro.  xxxvii. 
12. 


ALL  over  the  world  women  are  restless;  per- 
haps, in  no  direction  is  this  shown  more  alarm- 
ingly than  in  the  attitude  of  many  modern  girls 
toward  marriage  and  motherhood.  There  is 
dissatisfaction  brewing  in  sexual  matters  as 
well  as  in  every  other  department  of  life,  and 

i  Some  parts  of  this  essay  appeared,  in  1913,  in  the  Eng- 
lish Review.  The  article  created  some  interest  at  that  time, 
especially  in  America,  where  it  was  published  (with  two 
other  articles  from  the  English  Review)  in  a  little  book, 
"  Women  and  Morality."  My  opinions  have  changed  little 
•since  I  wrote  it.  In  my  last  book,  "Motherhood  and  the  Re- 
lationships of  the  Sexes,"  I  again  treat  the  subject  in  a 
chapter  entitled  Sexual  Relationships  outside  of  Marriage. 
I  am  now  strengthened  in  my  certainty  that  responsibility 
must  be  fixed  and  regulated  in  all  sexual  relationships  if 
moral  health  is  to  be  restored. 

192 


FORESEEING  EVIL  193 

only  the  hypocrites  cry  "Peace"  when  there  is 
no  peace. 

I  have  said  so  much  about  this  restlessness  of 
women  that  I  do  not  want  to  labor  the  ques- 
tion, rather  I  wish  to  consider  what  to  me  seem 
the  results  as  they  are  finding  expression  in  the 
relations  of  women  and  men.  It  is,  of  course, 
a  subject  much  too  difficult  to  allow  arbitrary 
judgments,  all  I  can  do  is  to  jot  down  a  few 
remarks,  rough  notes,  as  it  were,  on  what  I 
have  seen  and  thought. 

And  first,  I  would  ask  the  reader  to  remem- 
ber those  many  sex-conventions  that  in  the 
past  have  gathered  around  women's  lives.  I 
need  not  enumerate  them,  they  are  known  to 
you  all,  but  what  I  want  to  emphasize  is  that, 
though  so  many  of  them  have  been  removed 
their  influence  persists.  Always  the  customs 
and  beliefs  of  a  past  social  life  live  on  beneath 
the  surface  of  society;  in  a  thousand  ways  we 
do  not  recognize,  they  press  upon  the  individ- 
ual soul.  We  cannot  without  strong  effort 
escape  from  the  chains  of  our  inheritance.  In 
the  nations  of  the  West,  where  the  bride- 
groom's joy  with  his  bride  is  never  spoken  of 
except  as  a  subject  fit  for  jests,  where  celibacy 
has  been  extolled  and  marriage  treated  as  "a 


194        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

remedy  for  sin,"  where  barrenness  instead  of 
being  regarded  as  the  greatest  possible  evil  is 
artificially  produced,  where  the  natural  joys  of 
the  body — the  sex- joys  and  the  joy  of  wine 
and  food  have  been  confused  with  disgraceful 
things — it  is  there  that  a  perpetual  conflict 
lurks  at  the  very  heart  of  life;  hidden  it  be- 
comes more  active  for  evil. 

Always  times  of  upheaval  and  change  afford 
opportunities  for  escape  in  violent  expression, 
and  while  we  bewail  the  disorder  and  confu- 
sion, the  many  sexual  crimes  that  are  over- 
whelming us,  we  ought  to  take  warning  at  our 
folly  in  having  set  up  for  ourselves  the  new 
fashionable  god  of  "escape  from  sex." 

Women  are  the  worst  sinners.  At  every 
opportunity  the  women  of  my  generation  have 
been  insisting  on  "the  monstrous  exaggera- 
tions of  the  claims  of  sex,"  breaking  away  vio- 
lently from  the  older  obsessing  preoccupation 
with  their  position  as  women,  but  only  to  take 
up  new  evasions — fresh  miserable  attempts  at 
escape.  What  began  as  a  war  of  ideals  be- 
came before  long  a  chaos.  It  has  had  the  ef- 
fect not  at  all  of  minimizing  the  power  of  sex, 
but  just  as  far  as  the  deeper  needs  and  instincts 
have  been  denied,  has  there  been  a  deliberate 


FORESEEING  EVIL  195 

turning  on  the  part  of  the  young  to  the  reliefs 
of  sex-excitements.  The  servitude  of  sex  is 
one  of  the  essential  riddles  of  life.  Personally 
I  do  not  feel  there  is  any  simple  solution. 
The  conflict,  broadly  speaking,  lies  in  this :  our 
sex  needs  have  changed  very  little  through  the 
ages,  now  we  are  faced  with  the  task  of  adapt- 
ing them  to  the  society  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves placed,  of  conforming  with  the  rules  laid 
down,  accepting  all  the  pressing  claims  of  civ- 
ilized life,  conditions,  not  clearly  thought  out 
and  established  to  help  us  and  make  moral  con- 
duct easier,  but  dependent  much  more  on 
property,  social  rank,  and  ignorance, — all  com- 
bining to  make  any  kind  of  healthy  sex  expres- 
sion more  difficult,  which  explains  our  duplic- 
ity and  so  often  prevents  the  acceptance  in 
practice  of  the  code  of  conduct  upheld  by  most 
of  us  as  right.  I  think  it  is  a  particularly  in- 
tolerable state  of  affairs.  It  is  not  pleasant  to 
find  oneself  out  as  a  moral  hypocrite. 

The  primitive  savage  within  us  all  always 
will  make  any  kind  of  excuse  to  break  out  in  its 
own  primitive  savage  way.  We  are  just  too 
civilized  to  face  this,  and,  I  think,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  our  conduct  has  been  hindered 
by  many  of  the  modern  intellectual  suppres- 


196        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

sions.  The  convention  that  passions  and  emo- 
tions are  absent,  when  in  reality  they  are  pres- 
ent, to-day  has  broken  down  as,  indeed,  it  al- 
ways must  break  down  everywhere,  leading  in 
thousands  of  cases  individual  young  women 
and  men  to  disaster,  making  us  all  more  fur- 
tive, more  pitiful  slaves  of  the  force  whose 
power  we  are  not  yet  sufficiently  brave  to  ac- 
knowledge. 

Much  of  our  civilization  has  revealed  itself 
as  a  monstrous  sham,  more  dangerously  inde- 
cent because  of  its  pretense  at  decency.  It  is 
something  like  those  poisoned  tropical  forests, 
fever-infested,  which  were  in  the  land  of  my 
birth,  beautiful  outwardly,  with  great  vivid 
flowers,  high  palms,  towering  trees  of  fern,  all 
garlanded  with  creepers  and  lovely  wild 
growth, — glades  of  fair  shadow  inviting  to 
rest,  yet  poisonous  so  that  to  sleep  there  was 
death. 

II 

We  have  yet  to  find  our  way  in  sexual 
things.  The  revealing  knowledge  that  Freud 
and  his  followers  have  given  to  the  world 
shows  us  something  of  our  groping  darkness; 
there  is  much  we  have  to  relearn,  to  accept 


FORESEEING  EVIL  197 

many  things  in  ourselves  and  others  that  we 
have  denied.  We  must  give  up  our  cherished 
pretense  of  the  sexual  life  being  easy  and  inno- 
cent, we  must  open  doors  into  the  secret  de- 
fenses we  have  set  around  ourselves.  None  of 
us  know  much,  but  at  least  we  must  begin  to 
tell  the  truth  about  the  little  we  do  know. 

Now,  this  self-honesty  may  sound  a  simple 
thing.  It  is  not.  Few  of  us  even  know  how 
hard  it  will  be.  It  will  call  for  the  greatest 
possible  courage  to  tear  away  the  new,  as  well 
as  the  old,  bandages  with  which  we  have  blink- 
ered our  eyes,  walking  in  shadow  so  complete 
that  some  of  us  have  lost  the  very  power  of 
sight,  like  the  strange  fishes  that  live  in  the 
gloom  of  the  Kentucky  caves.  Honesty  will 
demand  a  real  conversion,  a  change  in  our  atti- 
tude to  ourselves  and  to  one  another.  We 
shall  have,  indeed,  to  reassure  ourselves  of  the 
sincerity  of  our  intentions,  to  begin  as  the  first 
necessary  step  to  accept  ourselves  as  we  are 
and  to  give  up  what  we  desire  to  pretend  we 
are,  to  learn  to  be  truthful  to  ourselves  about 
ourselves. 

Better  to  know  ourselves  as  sinners,  than  to 
be  virtuous  in  falsehood.  We  must  grow  up 
emotionally;  want  things  to  seem  what  they 


198       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

are,  not  what  we  want  them  to  be.     After- 
wards we  can  perhaps  go  on  to  help  others. 


Ill 

There  is  a  further  danger  to  which  I  must 
refer,  for  it  is  one  that,  in  my  opinion,  is  very 
active  for  disaster.  I  find  a  tendency  among 
most  grown-ups,  especially  among  teachers 
and  advanced  parents,  who  ought  to  know  bet- 
ter, to  place  too  firm  a  reliance  on  moral  teach- 
ing and  sexual  enlightenment  as  a  means  of 
saving  our  daughters  and  our  sons  from  mak- 
ing the  same  mistakes  in  their  lives  that  we  our- 
selves have  made.  Like  those  drowning  in 
deep  waters  where  they  cannot  swim,  we  have 
clutched  at  any  plank  of  hope.  You  see,  so 
many  of  the  old  planks — religion,  social  bar- 
riers, chaperons,  home  restrictions,  and  so 
many  more,  on  which  our  parents  used  to  rely, 
have  failed  us,  broken  in  our  hands  by  the  vig- 
orous destroying  of  the  young  generation,  and, 
therefore  we  have  clutched  with  frantic  fingers 
at  this  new  fair-looking  life  raft,  in  pursuit  of 
the  one  aim  to  protect  our  children.  Myself, 
I  have  done  this.  It  is  with  uttermost  sadness 
I  have  to  acknowledge  now  that  I  do  not  be- 


FORESEEING  EVIL  199 

lieve  we  can  help  the  young  very  far  or  deeply 
by  all  our  teaching.  Not  only  do  they  want 
their  own  experience,  not  ours,  but  it  is  right 
for  them  to  have  it.  The  urge  of  adolescence 
carries  them  away  out  of  our  detaining  hands. 

But  that  is  not  to  say  we  are  to  push  them 
into  dangers.  I  believe  we  make  the  way  too 
hard  for  the  young  with  much  of  our  nonsense 
about  liberty  and  not  interfering.  You  know 
what  happens  in  a  garden  where  the  gardener 
does  interfere  with  his  hoe?  I  have  been 
forced  back,  often  reluctantly,  into  accepting 
the  necessity  of  boundaries.  I  want  right  con- 
duct to  be  defined,  and  defined  widely  with 
possible  paths,  so  that  the  young  may  have  a 
chance  of  finding  their  way. 

We  have,  I  am  sure,  to  set  up  new  conven- 
tions, establish  fresh  sanctions  and  accept  pro- 
hibitions, to  rebuild  our  broken  ramparts  and 
render  safe  and  pleasant  the  city  within.  Do 
we  fail  to  do  this,  we  leave  the  young  to  stum- 
ble among  the  ruins  we  have  made.  And  do 
not  let  us  be  hypocrites  and  profess  surprise 
when  they  fall.  The  knowledge  we  are  forc- 
ing on  them,  often  against  their  desire,  will  not 
save  them.  With  all  our  efforts  we  can  but 
teach  them  intellectually ;  a  form  of  knowledge, 


200        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

which  shatters  like  thin  glass,  with  a  very  slight 
blow,  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  emo- 
tions. Thus  I  am  driven  back  to  the  truth, 
established  already  in  an  earlier  essay,  that  the 
one  sure  way  to  deliver  the  young  from  evil  is 
to  lessen  their  temptations. 

You  see  hidden  sin  is  always  more  attractive 
than  open  sin;  for  one  thing,  it  is  easier  to  be- 
gin, and  the  beginning  of  sin  is  usually  drift- 
ing; secrecy  also  supplies  adventure,  and  the 
excitement  that  is  desired  by  the  young  so  pas- 
sionately in  the  dullness  of  life. 

IV 

There  never  was  an  age  when  so  many 
diverse  types  of  young  women  flourished, 
sometimes  they  are  rather  puzzling  to  the  mid- 
dle-aged observer.1  With  so  many  of  them 
there  is  a  kind  of  forced  levity,  a  self-conscious- 
ness that  prevents  them  from  being  either  sim- 
ple or  serious.  All  the  clever  ones  seem  to 
think  that  by  talking  in  generalizations,  you 
can  avert  the  plain  issues  of  life.  Their  con- 
versation is  full  of  meaningless  remarks,  such 
as  "the  bondage  of  sex,"  "the  superstition  of 

i  A   clever  novel,   "Three  Women,"   by   Miss    Netta  Syrett, 
gives  an  illuminating  picture  of  modern  womanhood. 


FORESEEING  EVIL  201 

chastity,"  "freedom  in  the  marriage  bond," 
"the  sacrifice  of  women,"  "stifling  convention," 
and  so  on,  which  they  go  on  repeating  because 
that  is  the  terminology  of  their  set.  They 
have  no  conception  of  realities  at  all,  only  of 
abstract  situations.  Impossible  to  tell  what 
are  their  pseudo-emotions;  a  sort  of  sterile  in- 
tellectualism,  shown  in  their  shirking  of  sex 
responsibility.  They  wish  to  ignore  the  real 
difficulty  of  marriage;  they  accept  love,  but 
only  with  conditions.  The  one  thing  they  face 
practically  is  work,  and  the  two  activities  don't 
conflict  in  their  estimates,  because  their  minds 
are  too  choked  with  conceptions  to  admit  facts. 
They  are  faithful  to  their  training  by  G.  Ber- 
nard Shaw  and  IT.  G.  Wells,  in  thinking  that 
by  stating  a  situation  and  arguing  about  it,  you 
can  shirk  the  need  of  dealing  with  it. 

Some  women  want  to  wipe  the  sex-side  of 
life  out.  They  cannot.  They  preach  that 
work  and  human  experience  (whatever  that 
may  mean)  will  weaken  sex-desire.  It  does 
not.  Desires  may  be  inhibited,  not  destroyed, 
corrupting  in  quietness  they  wait  opportunity 
to  revive,  insistent,  clamoring. 

Other  young  women  try  deliberately  to  keep 
love  light.  Shrewd  enough  to  understand  the 


202        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

heavy  claims  of  serious  passion,  they  prefer  af- 
fairs of  the  senses  only;  episodes  that  are  a 
secret  detachable  part  of  their  lives.  They 
want  love  as  an  experience,  and  to  provide  the 
always  desired  excitement,  but  they  want  as 
well  to  remain  free  to  take  up  other  aspects  of 
life.  And  while  condescending  to  fascinate 
men  while  deliberately  seeking  attention,  they 
still  hold  themselves  in  hand;  intending  to  ex- 
ploit life  to  the  uttermost,  they  find  sex  amus- 
ing, but  they  fight  always  against  its  being  a 
vocation. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  reason  for  this.  The 
young  are  more  reckless  and  lawless,  they  do 
more  and  go  further  than  the  last  generation, 
and  this  is  but  an  outward  expression  of  disor- 
der within,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  traced  back  to 
the  passionate  need  felt  by  the  young  for  love. 
So  that  whenever  this  love-desire  is  unsatisfied, 
or  falsely  satisfied,  the  dynamic  need  causes  a 
kind  of  ferment,  which  sours  love  so  that  it  be- 
comes desire  to  be  considered.  If  a  woman  is 
not  important  to  others,  she  becomes  important 
to  herself,  and  this  unconscious  self-glorifica- 
tion is  so  devouring,  so  little  based  on  anything 
that  can  possibly  satisfy  the  need  that  is  its 
cause,  that  it  creates  a  hunger  that  can  never 


FORESEEING  EVIL  203 

be  appeased,  so  constant  are  its  demands  for 
nourishment.  It  is  difficult  to  say  how  far  this 
insatiable  egomania  will  take  our  young  wo- 
men. Some  men  are  also  empoisoned  with  it. 

Both  these  types  are  modern;  opposed  to 
them  is  another  type  of  young  woman,  more 
feminine,  easier  to  explain,  but  also  thwarted, 
restlessly  demanding  an  outlet.  These  wo- 
men do  not  want  to  furl  their  sex,  they  seek 
lovers  to  whom  they  may  surrender  themselves, 
but  they  suffer  from  a  formless  discontent  that 
rots  into  every  love  and  prevents  them  finding 
satisfaction.  Eternally  they  are  unsatisfied, 
without  knowing  why. 

It  is  another  modern  disease  and  has  little 
connection  with  flirting  and  lightness  of  char- 
acter, though  often  the  two  are  confused.  Too 
restless  to  be  faithful,  born  spiritual  adventur- 
ers, these  worshipers  of  emotionalism  set  up 
elaborate  pretenses  of  pure  friendships,  ignor- 
ing the  hot  glow  within:  they  love  romanti- 
cally, but  rarely  are  strong  enough  to  obey 
their  inclinations.  Such  women  are  out  on  an 
eternal  quest,  and  every  now  and  again,  they 
believe  they  have  found  what  they  are  seeking. 
Then  they  discover  they  have  not  found  it,  so 
their  search  is  taken  up  anew;  while  often  the 


204        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

social  scheme  drives  them  into  dangerous  cor- 
ners, forces  them  to  turn  from  their  quest  or  to 
use  mean  weapons  of  deceit,  does  not  give  them 
a  chance. 

These  romantic  seekers  of  love,  suffering 
continual  frustration  from  the  evaporation  of 
emotional  interest  that  defies  their  own  needs; 
the  many  types  of  efficient  workers,  alert,  hard, 
self-satisfied,  not  wholly  cynical,  yet  with  a 
touch  of  something  that  borders  on  cynicism, 
submitting  almost  with  <a  secret  repugnance  to 
the  mysterious  but  supreme  bond  which  holds 
the  sexes  miserably  together;  and  the  prosti- 
tute woman  of  all  kinds,  out  to  seize  every  ad- 
vantage from  men,  ruthless,  living  upon  sex— 
these  are,  it  seems  to  me,  the  three  main  types 
of  women  resulting  in  our  so-called  civilization 
of  to-day,  from  our  repressions  and  falsehoods, 
our  indefinite  wills,  from  our  confused  ideals 
and  failure  in  living ;  and  it  is  hard  to  say  which 
is  the  most  harmful,  which  is  the  most  wronged, 
which  is  the  most  unhappy,  the  furthest  re- 
moved from  the  type  that  is  eternal — the  ideal 
woman,  satisfied  and  glad,  whom  a  happier  fu- 
ture may  again  permit  to  live. 


FORESEEING  EVIL  205 


It  was  Mr.  Wells  who  said  in  one  of  his 
novels,  "suppose  the  liberation  of  women  sim- 
ply means  the  liberation  of  mischief."  "Sup- 
pose she  is  wicked  as  a  sex,  suppose  she  will 
trade  on  her  power  of  exciting  imaginative 
men." 

Something  very  like  this  has  been  happening 
in  the  world  to-day. 

We  are  all  to  pieces  morally.  The  con- 
sciences of  many  people  are  their  neighbor's 
opinions,  and  the  removal  of  so  many  young 
girls  and  men  from  their  home  surroundings, 
their  relations  and  old  friends,  has  greatly 
slackened  the  watchful  safe-guarding  of  mor- 
als, so  that  any  slightest  infringement  has  not 
been  at  once  observed  and  quickly  punished. 
The  important  barriers  of  difference  in  class, 
in  social  positions,  and  in  race  have  also  broken 
through.  Conditions  in  the  five  war-years  and 
most  of  the  arrangements  of  society  have  dis- 
couraged morality  very  heavily,  and  the  wise 
thing  for  us  to  do  in  the  matter  is  not  to  grow 
eloquent  about  sin,  but  at  once  to  do  intelligent 
things  to  make  right  conduct  easier. 

An  organized  freedom  and  independence  for 


206        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

women  has  certainly  had  startling  moral  re- 
sults. The  reasons  are  obvious  enough.  It  is 
a  necessary  consequence  of  our  modern  insist- 
ence on  individual  values;  the  harping  of  one 
generation  on  freedom,  which  has  caused  our 
young  women,  in  many  directions,  to  carry 
their  ideas  of  freedom  far  beyond  the  accepted 
conventions  of  our  ordinary  civilized  human 
association.  It  has  been  shown  as  manifestly 
true  that  for  all  ordinary  young  women  that 
intimate  association  with  men,  fellowship  in  the 
workshops  and  factories  and  in  play,  turns 
them  with  extreme  readiness  to  love-making. 
Now,  I  am  very  far  from  wishing  to  blame 
women ;  rather  am  I  glad  that  what  I  have  as- 
serted, for  so  long  and  against  so  much  oppo- 
sition, about  the  elementary  power  of  sex  in 
women,  has  been  vindicated  by  themselves. 

Life  for  women  so  often  has  been  wrong  and 
discordant,  and  the  wretchedness  has  been 
greatly  increased  by  the  way  we  have  left,  in 
the  immediate  past,  the  force  of  sex  unregu- 
lated and  unrecognized,  thereby  causing  much 
of  the  modern  companionship  of  women  with 
men,  of  girls  with  boys,  to  be  really  a  mon- 
strous sham,  maintained  and  made  exciting  by 


FORESEEING  EVIL  207 

false  situations  that  often  have  closed  around 
the  two  like  a  trap. 

There  are,  and  always  have  been,  far  more 
women  and  girls  than  we  like  to  acknowledge 
who  are  by  their  inclinations  sexually  promis- 
cuous. It  is  just  conventional  rot  to  talk  of 
sex  impulse  being  weaker  and  quite  different 
in  women  from  men;  of  constancy  as  the  spe- 
cial virtue  of  women.  Sometimes  it  is,  but 
oftener  it  is  not.  It  depends  on  the  type  of 
woman.  A  great  and  possibly  increasing 
number  of  girls  to-day  regard  love  affairs  in 
very  much  the  same  way  as  they  are  regarded 
by  the  average  sensual  man,  as  enjoyable  and 
exciting  incidents  of  which  they  are  ashamed 
only  when  they  are  talked  about  and  blamed. 
Such  girls  very  rarely  give  trouble  to  men  or 
make  scenes,  they  don't  care  enough;  that,  I 
think,  is  why  they  always  find  lovers.  It  is 
also  why  it  is  easy  for  them  to  have  secret  rela- 
tions. With  no  sex-conscience,  such  girls, 
even  when  quite  young,  exhibit  a  logic  and  a 
frankness  that  sometimes  is  rather  startling. 
They  seem  to  have  no  modesty,  though  many 
of  them  are  prudes ;  they  have  no  consciousness 
of  responsibility;  they  feel  no  kind  of  shame. 


208       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

Such  libidinous  temperaments  have  been  com- 
mon at  all  times  and  in  all  societies,  if  in  stricter 
periods  so  many  women  did  not  follow  their 
inclinations  with  the  openness  now  so  frequent, 
it  was  simply  out  of  fear;  possibly  they  took 
more  careful  precautions  against  discovery. 

There  are  as  well  as  these  wantons,  girls  of 
a  different  type,  who  are  more  contradictory 
and  difficult  because  of  a  less  simple  sexuality, 
but  who  are  equally,  even  if  not  more,  harm- 
fully destructive  in  the  utter  misery  they  often 
create.  This  is  the  type  of  girl  who  ripens  to 
a  premature  and  too  emotional  sexuality,  and 
who,  though  still  keeping  herself  physically  in- 
tact, is  spiritually  corrupt.  The  spiritual 
masochism  of  a  woman  may  lead  to  depths  of 
cruelty  rarely  understood.1 

Many  other  nobler  types  of  women  have 
been  playing  with  vice.  Many  wild  impulses 
have  found  strange  expressions.  Women  have 
been  very  like  children  playing  at  desperate 
rebels,  who  take  up  weapons  to  use  far  more 
deadly  than  they  knew.  All  this  playing  with 
love  is  detestable,  all  of  it.  It  shows  a  shame- 
ful shirking  of  responsibility.  Women  are  the 
custodians  of  manners  in  love,  and  very  many, 

i  See  I.  Bloch,  "  Sexual  History  of  our  Times,"  pp.  320-322. 


FORESEEING  EVIL  209 

who  have  not  dreamt  of  the  results  of  their 
slackenings,  have  been  urging  on  the  young  to 
a  riotous  festival,  extravagant  and  disquiet- 
ing. 

It  must,  I  think,  be  acknowledged!  that  a 
vast  impatience  on  the  part  of  women  has  made 
conduct  less  decent  and  less  responsible.  Lov- 
ers are  more  reckless,  even  sometimes  more 
consciously  and  vulgarly  vicious.  Women  of 
profound  and  steadfast  emotional  nature  are 
rare.  The  great  majority  now,  perhaps,  are 
not  entirely  light-minded,  but  they  are  less  ser- 
ious, more  noisily  determined  to  do  what  they 
want,  and  get  what  they  can  both  out  of  men 
and  out  of  life. 

And  the  great  fact  that  stands  out  from  all 
this — the  great  need  for  our  private  personal 
good  as  well  as  the  public  good — is  the  need  of 
the  young  for  guidance  and  regulation,  the  ne- 
cessity for  refixing  of  moral  standards  in  sex- 
ual conduct,  of  formulating  a  code  of  good 
manners,  to  meet  the  present  needs.  Nothing 
else,  in  my  opinion,  can  avert  even  greater  dis- 
asters of  license  in  the  future,  than  those  condi- 
tions we  are  now  facing. 


210       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

VI 

New  wine  is  being  put  into  old  bottles  and 
the  wine  of  life  is  being  poured  out  and  wasted. 
The  old  convention  that  irregular  love  is  ex- 
cusable in  the  case  of  the  man,  but  always  to  be 
punished  in  the  case  of  the  woman  will  never 
again  be  accepted,  at  least  not  by  women.  It 
is  not  women's  ideas  so  much  that  are  confused 
as  their  emotions,  and  wills.  Their  impulses 
are  not  focused  to  any  ideal.  They  are  driven 
hither  and  thither.  That  is  the  essential  fail- 
ure to-day.  The  irregular  unions,  now  so 
common,  are  but  the  more  intimate  aspect  of  a 
general  attitude  toward  life.  Many  women 
who  have  entered  them,  have  done  so  rather  in 
a  mood  of  protesting  refractoriness  than  from 
any  serviceable  desire ;  already  they  find  them- 
selves left  after  transitory  passionate  friend- 
ships in  difficult  situations  in  which  there  is  as 
yet  no  certain  tradition  of  behavior.  And  in 
this  way,  there  is  left  open  an  inviting  door  to 
those  who  are  weak,  as  well  as  to  those  who  are 
corrupt,  to  behave  irresponsibly  and  commit 
every  kind  of  uncleanness. 

Where  is  this  wild  love  going  to  end? 

These  dissatisfied  women  of  strong  sexual- 


FORESEEING  EVIL  211 

ity,  and  women  of  the  other  types  I  have  noted, 
must  either  marry  or  must  continue  lawless 
careers  of  unregulated  promiscuity,  each  one 
acting  according  to  her  own  fancy,  curbed  only 
by  the  will  of  her  lover  or  lovers,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  she  is  placed:  there  is  at 
present  no  third  course. 

Now,  the  moralist,  who  does  not  face  facts, 
would  have  them  all  marry.  Certainly  this  is 
an  easy  way  to  settle  the  matter,  but  is  it  wise? 
is  it  even  right?  Moreover,  even  if  this  were 
possible  and  there  was  no  surplus  of  women, 
would  this  solution  be  acceptable  to  these  wo- 
men? I  am  doubtful  if  it  would.  Many  of 
them  who  want  a  lover  do  not  want  a  husband, 
they  make  a  surprisingly  clear  distinction  be- 
tween the  two.  There  is,  as  I  have  before  said, 
a  hardly-yet-realized  change  in  woman's  atti- 
tude: they  are  beginning  to  take  the  ordinary 
man's  view  of  these  affairs, — to  regard  them  as 
important  and  providing  interest  and  pleasure, 
but  not  to  be  exaggerated  into  tragedies. 
They  deliberately  want  to  keep  love  light  and 
dread  the  bondage  of  any  deep  emotions. 

Now,  such  an  attitude  is  not  good  for  mar- 
riage, and,  indeed,  there  can  be  no  manner  of 
use  in  forcing  into  the  marriage  bonds  those 


212       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

who  are  unwilling  to  accept  its  duties  of 
permanent  devotion.  Some  other  way,  more 
practical  and  more  helpful,  must  be  found. 
We  shall  have,  I  am  convinced,  to  broaden  our 
views  on  this  question  of  passionate  friendships 
between  women  and  men,  to  reconsider  the 
whole  position  of  sexual  relationships  apart 
from  marriage,  in  order  to  decide  what  may  be 
permitted,  to  regulate  conduct  and  fasten  re- 
sponsibility, to  open  up  in  the  future  new  ways 
of  virtue.  And  in  attempting,  thus,  to  face 
squarely  the  difficult  situations  before  us,  I  can 
find  only  one  clear  simple  and  honest  way 
to  act. 

VII 

We  come,  then,  to  this :  how  can  the  way  be 
made  plainer  for  those  women  and  also  men 
who  are  unsuited  for  marriage  and  do  not  wish 
to  devote  their  lives  to  its  duties? 

I  believe  that  if  there  were  some  open  recog- 
nition of  honorable  partnerships  outside  of 
marriage,  not  necessarily  permanent,  with 
proper  provision  for  the  future,  guarding  the 
woman,  who,  in  my  opinion,  should  be  in  all 
cases  protected;  a  provision  not  dependent  on 
the  generosity  of  the  man  and  made  after  the 


FORESEEING  EVIL  213 

love  which  sanctioned  the  union  has  waned,  but 
decided  upon  by  the  man  and  the  woman  in- 
the  form  of  a  registered  contract  before  the  re- 
lationship was  entered  upon,  then  there  would 
everywhere  be  women  ready  to  undertake  such 
unions  gladly,  there  would,  indeed,  be  many 
women,  as  well  as  men,  who,  for  the  reasons  I 
have  shown,  would  prefer  them  to  marriage. 

There  is  (I  must  again  insist  upon  this), 
whether  we  like  it  or  not,  a  new  kind  of  woman 
about,  who  is  to  snatch  from  life  the  freedom 
that  men  have  had,  and  to  do  this,  she  knows, 
if  she  thinks  at  all,  that  she  must  keep  marriage 
at  bay.  For  marriage  binds  the  woman  while 
it  frees  the  man,  and  this  injustice — if  so  you 
like  to  term  it — is  dependent  on  something  fun- 
damental; something  that  will  not  be  changed 
by  endowment  of  motherhood,  an  equal  moral 
standard  in  the  marriage  laws,  or  any  of  the 
modern  patent  medicines  for  giving  health  to 
marriage  and  liberty  to  wives.  There  is  an  in- 
escapable difference  in  the  results  of  marriage 
on  the  two  partners.  I  mean,  marriage  holds 
the  woman  bound  through  her  emotions,  while 
it  liberates  the  man  through  what  he  receives 
from  her.  The  woman  gains  her  greatest  lib- 
eration only  from  the  child,  but  again  that 


214        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

holds  her  bound.  Perhaps  this  is  the  way  na- 
ture will  not  let  women  get  away  from  their 
service  to  life. 

Sometimes  there  is  the  necessity  of  purifying 
by  loss.  I  do  not  believe  in  changing  the  ideal 
of  marriage  so  that  its  duties  are  less  binding 
on  women,  already  we  have  gone  too  far  in  that 
direction.  Thus,  I  think  it  better  to  make  pro- 
vision for  other  partnerships  to  meet  the  sex- 
needs  (for  we  can  cause  nothing  but  evil  by 
failing  to  meet  them)  of  those  women  who,  de- 
siring the  same  freedom  as  the  man,  would  del- 
egate the  duties  of  wife  and  mother  to  the  odd 
moments  of  life,  and  choose  to  pursue  work  or 
pleasure  unvexed  and  unimpeded  by  the  home 
duties  and  care  of  children.  Marriage  also  is 
a  trust ;  we  are  the  trustees  to  the  future  for  the 
most  sacred  institution  of  life. 


VIII 

A  society  parched  for  honesty  cannot  suffer 
the  ignominious  and  chaotic  conditions  of  our 
sexual  lives  to  go  on  as  they  have  been  lately 
among  us,  for  it  is  plain  to  me  that  our  moral 
code — that  marriage  itself  cannot  stand,  and, 
indeed,  is  not  standing,  the  strain  of  our  dis- 


FORESEEING  EVIL  215 

honesties.  Our  social  life  is  worm-eaten  and 
crumbling  into  rottenness  with  secret  and  scan- 
dalous hidden  relationships;  these  dark  and 
musty  by-ways  and  corners  of  sexual  conduct 
want  to  be  spring-cleaned  and  made  decent. 
Never  before  have  we  needed  so  urgently  to 
put  our  house  in  order.  We  must  begin  to 
tidy  up  and  begin  soon.  If  we  cut  out  some 
parts  of  the  labyrinth,  we  shall  give  the  young 
a  surer  chance  of  finding  their  way  out  of  the 
rest  of  the  labyrinth. 


IX 

An  open  recognition  of  unions  outside  of 
marriage  would  prevent  the  present  easy  es- 
cape on  the  part  of  so  many  men  and  women 
from  responsible  conduct  in  these  unregulated 
relationships.  It  is  because  I  believe  this 
that  I  am  advocating  this  course,  which  will 
not  make  immorality  easier,  but  rather  will  im- 
pose definite  obligations  where  now  none  exist. 

This  proposal  is  not  made  lightly.  I  am  not 
advocating  such  a  cwirse  as  being  in  itself 
desirable  or  undesirable.  I  am  attempting 
merely  to  estimate  the  drift  and  tendency  of 
the  times,  considering  those  forces  which  for 


216       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

long  have  been  in  action  and,  as  I  think,  must 
continue  to  act  with  even  greater  urgency  in 
the  difficult  years  that  are  before  us. 

I  must  affirm  how  necessary,  in  my  opinion, 
is  some  kind  of  fixed  recognition  for  every  form 
of  sexual  relationship  between  a  woman  and  a 
man,  so  that  there  may  be  an  accepted  standard 
of  conduct  for  the  partners  entering  into  them. 
Regulation  is  more  necessary  in  sex  than  in 
any  other  department  of  conduct,  for  the  plain 
reason  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  force  that 
pierces  the  slashes  through  our  conscious  wills, 
holding  us  often  helpless  in  its  power;  a  force 
which  often  finds  its  momentum  in  atavisms 
stored  up  through  countless  ages  before  ever 
society  began;  a  force  merely  glossed  over,  as 
it  were,  by  a  worn  smudge  of  civilization. 
And  to-day  "the  smudge"  has  grown  more  than 
ever  ineffective. 

May  not  something  be  done  now,  when  we 
are  being  forced  to  consider  these  questions, 
to  make  some  wider  recognition  possible. 
Partnerships  other  than  marriage  have  had  a 
place  as  a  recognized  and  guarded  institution 
in  many  older,  and  in  some  ways  wiser,  soci- 
eties, and,  it  may  be  that  the  conditions  brought 
upon  us  after  the  World  War  may  act  in  fore- 


FORESEEING  EVIL  217 

ing  upon  us  a  similar  acceptance.  I  believe 
that,  in  face  of  much  that  is  happening  to-day 
—the  terrible  disorder,  like  spreading-sores, 
infesting  our  sexual  lives — such  a  change 
would  work  for  good,  and  not  for  evil,  that  it 
would  not  destroy  marriage,  but  might  re-es- 
tablish its  sanctity. 

X 

I  can  anticipate  an  objection  that  probably 
will  be  raised.  Why,  I  shall  be  asked,  if  sex- 
ual relationships  are  to  be  acknowledged  out- 
side of  marriage,  preserve  marriages  at  all? 
This  question  can  be  answered  confidently. 
Marriage  in  its  permanent  monogamous  form 
will  be  maintained  because  the  great  majority 
of  women  and  men  want  it  to  be  maintained. 
The  contract-partnerships  I  have  suggested 
will  be  powerless  to  harm  wedded  love,  of  which 
the  child  is  the  glorious  symbol.  No  law  is 
needed  to  protect  this  beauty.  There  will  al- 
ways remain  a  penalty  to  those  who  seek  va- 
riety in  love,  in  that  unrest  that  is  the  other  side 
of  variety. 

It  is  the  highest  type  of  men  and  women  who 
will  seek  to  marry  and  be  best  and  happiest,  if 
living  together  as  faithful  husband  and  wife, 


218        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

as  devoted  father  and  mother.  I  do,  however, 
hold,  that  there  are  others — women  and  men — 
without  the  gifts  that  make  for  successful  par- 
enthood or  happy  permanent  marriage.  I 
would  recognize  this  frankly,  and  let  those  who 
do  not  desire  marriage  be  openly  permitted  to 
live  together  in  honorable  temporary  unions. 

Surely  it  is  the  wisest  arrangement  for  the 
man  and  woman  worker  who  do  not  want  chil- 
dren, and,  not  wishing  for  the  bondage  of  a 
continuous  companionship,  desire  to  pass  their 
lives  in  liberty.  It  is  possible  that  in  some 
cases  such  friendship-contracts  might  serve  as 
a  preliminary  to  marriage,  while,  under  our 
present  disastrous  conditions,  they  might  also 
be  made  by  those  who  are  unsuitably  mated 
and  yet  are  unable,  or  do  not  wish,  to  sever  the 
bond  with  some  other  partner.  Such  contracts 
would  open  up  possibilities  of  honorable  rela- 
tions to  many  who  now  are  driven  into  shame- 
ful and  secret  unions. 

In  this  way  much  evil  would  be  prevented. 
As  time  went  on,  hasty  marriage  would  come 
to  be  looked  on  with  disapproval,  and  many 
unions  would  be  prevented  that  now  inevit- 
ably come  to  disaster.  And  this  would  leave 
greater  chances  of  marriage  and  child-bearing 


FORESEEING  EVIL  219 

for  others  and  more  suitable  types ;  while  fur- 
ther, these  sterile  unions  would,  by  their  child- 
lessness, act  to  remove  for  ever  from  the  world 
those  unsuited  to  be  parents.  It  is  this  last  re- 
sult that  matters  most. 


XI 

The  whole  question  of  any  sexual  relation- 
ships outside  of  marriage  in  the  past  has  been 
left  in  the  gutters,  so  to  speak,  of  necessity 
made  disreputable  by  the  shames  of  con- 
cealment. Much  of  this  would  be  changed. 
Moreover,  prostitution,  and  also  the  diseases  so 
closely  connected  with  prostitution,  would  be 
greatly  lessened,  though  I  do  not  think  sexual 
sins  would  cease.  There  will  always  be,  for  a 
very  long  time  at  least,  men  and  women  who 
will  be  attracted  to  wild-love.  This  we  have  to 
recognize.  No  one,  however,  need  be  driven 
into  the  dark  paths  of  irresponsible  love. 

It  is  the  results  that  have  almost  always  fol- 
lowed these  irregular  unions  that  have  always 
branded  them  as  anti-social  acts.  But  irre- 
sponsible conduct,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  de- 
sertion of  women,  which  is  made  easy  by  the 
condition  of  secrecy  under  which  they  now 


220        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

exist,  would  be  put  an  end  to.  And  by  doing 
this  would  follow  another  and,  perhaps,  even 
greater  gain.  The  recognition  of  these  part- 
nerships would  prevent  the  ostracism  which 
even  yet  falls  on  the  discarded  mistress. 
There  are  many  women  who  dread  this  more 
than  anything  else.  A  woman  is  hounded 
out  of  decent  life,  if  the  facts  of  her  history  be- 
come known;  honorable  love  is  closed  to  her, 
too  often  she  finds  the  easiest  and  pleasantest 
life  is  that  of  the  streets. 

One  reason  why  extra-conjugal  relationships 
are  discredited  is,  because  the  difficulties  placed 
around  all  who  enter  them  are  so  numerous 
that,  as  a  rule,  it  is  the  weak,  the  foolish  and 
the  irresponsible  who  undertake  these  partner- 
ships. Of  course,  this  is  not  always  true. 
Men  and  women,  against  their  wills  and  often 
before  they  know,  become  entangled  in  a  net  of 
furtive  and  dishonorable  acts.  Squalid  in- 
trigues are  the  shadow  that  I  want  to  eliminate 
out  of  existence.  But  make  these  partnerships 
honorable,  and  the  men  and  women  who  enter 
into  them  will  act  honorably.  I  do  not  see  that 
we  can  forbid  or  treat  with  bitterness  any  union 
that  is  openly  entered  into  and  in  which  the 
duties  undertaken  are  faithfully  fulfilled.  It 


FORESEEING  EVIL  221 

is  our  attitude  of  blame  that  so  often  makes  de- 
cent conduct  impossible;  forces  men  and  wo- 
men into  corners  where  there  is  no  escape  from 
embittered  rebellious  sin. 


XII 

I  have  sought  to  put  these  matters  as  plainly 
as  may  be  in  the  conviction  that  nothing  can  be 
gained  without  honesty.  Anyone  who  writes 
on  such  a  question  is,  I  know,  very  open  to  mis- 
conception. It  will  not  be  realized  by  many 
that  my  effort  is  not  to  lessen  responsibility, — 
to  weaken  at  all  the  bonds  between  the  sexes, 
rather  my  desire  is  to  strengthen  them ;  but,  I 
know,  the  form  of  the  bonds  will  have  to  be 
made  wider.  We  shall  have  more  morality  in 
too  much  wideness  than  in  too  little. 

Matters  are  likely  to  get  worse  and  not  bet- 
ter. And  the  answer  I  would  give  to  those 
who  fear  an  increase  of  immorality  from  any 
openly  recognized  provision  for  sexual  partner- 
ships outside  of  permanent  marriage  is  that  no 
deliberate  change  made  in  this  direction  can 
conceivably  make  the  moral  conditions  of  our 
society,  in  the  future,  worse  than  they  have 
been  in  the  recent  past.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 


222        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

every  form  of  irregular  union  has  existed  and 
does  exist  to-day,  but  shamefully  and  hidden. 
It  is  certain  that  they  will  continue  and  that 
their  numbers  will  not  lessen,  but  increase. 

The  only  logical  objection  that  I  can  think 
of  being  advanced  against  an  honorable  recog- 
nition of  these  partnerships  is  that,  by  doing 
away  with  all  necessity  for  concealments,  their 
number  is  likely  to  be  much  larger  than  if  the 
old  penalties  were  maintained.  I  doubt  if  this 
would  happen,  but,  even  if  it  were  so,  and  more 
of  these  partnerships  were  entered  into;  it  is 
also  true  that  recognition  is  the  only  possible 
way  in  which  such  union  can  cease  to  be  shame- 
ful. We  have,  then,  to  choose  whether  we  will 
accept  recognition  and  regulations,  unless,  in- 
deed, we  prefer  the  continuance  and  increase  of 
unregulated  secret  vice. 

There  is  no  other  choice,  at  least  I  can  find 
none ;  no  other  way  except  to  establish  respon- 
sibility in  all  our  sexual  relationships.  Secret 
relationships  must  be  contraband  in  the  new 
order. 


CONCLUSION 


WITHOUT    VISION 

"Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." — Pro. 
xxix.  18. 


I  BEGAN  this  book  on  Armistice  day,  and  am 
ending  it  on  Peace  day.  This  period  of  about 
eight  months  has  been  a  time  of  great  disillu- 
sionment. Even  those  little  inclined  to  be  de- 
ceived by  the  customary  exaggerations  of  poli- 
ticians, and  little  disposed  to  believe  in  sudden 
conversions,  had  hoped  that  the  immense  effort 
of  this  Great  War  was  to  awaken  the  deadened 
conscience  of  the  world;  to  leave  a  permanent 
improvement  in  social  and  international  rela- 
tions ;  making  class  and  individual  and  sex  com- 
petition, as  also  national  rivalry,  a  less  pro- 
nounced feature  in  the  new  order;  replacing 
greed  by  desire  for  service,  war  by  a  League  of 
Nations  to  enforce  justice.  But  a  war  of  jus- 
tice was  followed  by  a  peace  of  trickery  and  in- 
justice. The  victors  (if  not  every  one  of  them, 
still  collectively)  claimed  their  spoils  as  in 

223 


224        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

earlier  wars.  Clemenceau's  desire  for  ven- 
geance triumphed  over  Wilson's  principles  in 
the  center  of  the  world  stage. 

More  than  ever  we  search  the  future  with 
anxiety.  Amid  the  confusions  and  compul- 
sions, the  changes  unavoidable  in  this  time  of 
uncertainty,  it  is  immensely  more  difficult  to 
act  wisely.  In  the  old  days  it  all  seemed  so 
much  easier,  as  if  life  could  be  shuffled,  like  a 
pack  of  cards,  into  new  arrangements.  War 
has  made  a  difference  to  the  whole  of  life,  shat- 
tered everything,  as  it  were,  in  our  hands,  made 
the  daily  duties  of  most  of  us  much  harder. 
We  have  been  robbed  of  serenity. 

When  you  stand  at  the  threshold  of  this 
new  difficult  world,  knowing,  as  I  do,  that  the 
milestones  marking  the  backward  path  tell  you, 
with  certainty,  that  the  greater  part  of  your  life 
and  your  work  lies  behind  you,  then,  in  these 
waiting  days  of  urgency,  you  will  want  to  hold 
a  reckoning  with  yourself  and  with  life,  in  hu- 
mility to  question  everything,  your  own  faith 
and  what  you  have  tried  to  teach  to  others  with 
all  the  honesty  you  have. 

My  task  has  been  a  difficult  one,  and  it  is 
made  much  more  difficult  by  reason  of  the  un- 
certainties of  our  outlook,  because  there  are 


CONCLUSION  225 

now  so  few  principles  accepted  by  all  of  us  as 
true ;  every  principle  is  faced  by  a  counter  prin- 
ciple. It  is  so  much  easier  to  have  fixed  stand- 
ards of  conduct  than  to  argue  every  case  that 
occurs.  We  have  failed  in  every  direction  to 
establish  ideals  fine  enough  and  complete 
enough,  and  useful  enough  to  hold  our  imagi- 
nation and  our  wills.  Everyone  seems  to  be 
more  or  less  at  loose  ends  of  conflicting  pur- 
poses. Morals  now  are  like  clothes,  made  to 
measure  and  to  fit  each  wearer.  Too  often,  in 
important  particulars,  they  change  as  easily 
and  foolishly  as  the  fashions  change. 

I  wish  to  bring  people  back  to  a  disciplined 
freedom;  to  a  recognition  of  their  own  needs 
and  the  needs  of  others — the  deepest  desires  of 
life.  A  morality  based  on  individual  values  is 
breaking  down  in  every  direction,  under  the 
temptations  and  unsettlements,  increased  and 
hastened  by  the  war,  but  brought  about  pri- 
marily by  profit  seeking,  by  the  struggle  of 
everyone  doing  as  he  likes,  by  a  society  so  large, 
so  ill  organized  and  so  hurried  that  personal  in- 
tercourse gives  way  to  mechanical  relationships. 

My  position  is  all  the  more  difficult  as,  while 
inclining  more  to  the  spirit  of  those  who,  in  re- 
lation to  the  moral  questions  I  have  dealt  with, 


226       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

are  conservative,  I  yet  regard  very  many  of  our 
accepted  conventions  and  our  laws  as  produc- 
tive of  evil.  I  realize  the  way  in  which  they  act 
so  disastrously  in  hindering  the  spiritual  and 
physical  health  of  our  society.  I  am,  there- 
fore, eager  for  certain  very  wide-reaching  re- 
forms. 

I  have  not  great  patience  with  abstract 
theories  of  right  and  wrong,  rather  I  would  test 
every  law  and  every  institution  by  its  useful- 
ness in  helping  men  and  women.  However 
imperfectly  I  have  succeeded,  I  have  set  this 
aim  of  helpfulness  steadfastly  before  me  in 
every  proposal  I  have  made  for  changes  in  our 
marriage  laws  and  in  the  hindering  laws  which 
regulate  personal  conduct.  I  do  not  want  to 
discuss  and  consider  humanity,  life,  or  any- 
thing else  as  I  would  like  them  to  be,  but,  as 
honestly  as  I  can,  I  would  observe  and  then 
help  them  as  they  are. 

So  many  calamities  and  so  much  sin  that 
could  be  prevented  are  listlessly  accepted  by  us 
as  inevitable.  New  ideas  and  needs  are  en- 
tangled among  old;  there  is  much  of  the  new 
that  is  desirable  to  preserve,  much  of  the  old 
that  needs  to  be  reformed.  I  would  wish  to 
oppose  two  tendencies:  I  would  prevent  the 


CONCLUSION  227 

too  ready  acceptance  of  the  fashions  of  the  day, 
and  I  would  also  prevent  a  too  loyal  obedience 
to  the  prejudices  of  yesterday.  I  would  unite 
the  intelligence  of  the  modern  with  the  passion 
and  sincerity  of  the  ancient. 

Such  is  the  immensely  difficult  task  that  must 
be  faced  by  every  one  of  us  to-day.  All  of  us 
are  charged  with  heavy  responsibility.  Ours  is 
a  greater  inheritance  than  ever  before  there  has 
been  in  the  world.  We  have  all  of  us  become 
responsible  in  a  new  and  sterner  way;  to  unite 
in  our  search  to  find  the  new  right  paths. 
Three  generations  of  industrialism  have  cre- 
ated hideous  abuses;  we  have  to  end  them. 
With  our  wider  vision  and  more  knowledge, 
with  the  lessons  we  have  learned,  with  the  pain 
of  our  suffering,  and  our  sacrifices  still  branded 
on  our  hearts,  we  have  to  unite  one  with  the 
other  and  all  of  us  together  to  renew  and  to 
justify  life.  We  have  to  remake  the  world. 


APPENDICES 


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234 


WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 


TABLE  IV. 

Showing  Changes  between  July,  1914,  and  October,  1918, 
in  Numbers  of  Girls  under  18  employed  in  Various 
Occupations. 


Numbers  on 

Gross 

OCCUPATIONS  WITH  — 

July 

Oct. 

In- 

De- 

1914. 

1918. 

crease. 

crease. 

(  1  )    Very  large  Increase  . 

Building  and  Construction 

1,500 

6,000 

4,500 

Metal  Trades  .... 

45,000 

108,000 

63,000 

Chemical  Trades   . 

11,000 

25.000 

14,000 

Woodworking    Trades 

10,500 

20,000 

9,500 

Other    Trades 

26,000 

37,000 

11,000 

Total    in    Industry   . 

94,000 

196,000 

102,000 

(2)   Large  Increase,  but  no 

serious    problem. 

Mines  and  Quarries  . 

1,500 

4,000 

2,500 

Agriculture     .... 

12.000 

18,000 

6,000 

Professional    Occupations 

5,000 

11,000 

6,000 

Postal    Service 

10,000 

14,000 

4,000 

Municipal     Gas,      Water, 

and  Electricity 

1.000 

1,000 

Municipal     Tramways     . 

1,000 

1,000 

Other    Local    Government 

Service         .... 

5,000 

8,000 

3,000 

Total  in  Class  2    . 

33,500 

57,000 

23,500 

(  3  )   Small  Increase. 

Food,     Drink,      and     To- 

baco    Trades 

49,000 

53,000 

4,000 

TABLE  V. 

Number  of  Children  and  Young  Persons  convicted  of 
Indictable  Offenses  in  Juvenile  Courts  in  large 
Cities  and  in  the  Metropolitan  Police  Area  from 

1914-1917. 
INDICTABLE  OFFENSES.  1914          1915          1916          1917 


Manchester 435 

Liverpool 1,169 

Leeds 191 

Bristol 106 

Birmingham        ....  368 

Newcastle  86 


708 
1,545 
256 
207 
423 
177 


767  750 

2,013  2,196 

295  385 

331  279 

504  625 

222  234 


Metropolitan  Police 
District 


2,355         3,316         4,132         4,469 
1,778        3,069        3,858        3,856 


APPENDIX  II 

SOME  STATISTICS  REFERRING  TO  THE 
ILLEGITIMATELY  BORN  CHILD. 

i.  Births. 

About  50,000  illegitimate  children  are  born  yearly  in 
the  United  Kingdom.  Consider  what  this  means.  In 
the  course  of  a  single  generation  of  twenty  years  one 
million  of  these  unprotected  little  ones  are  born,  branded 
because  their  parents  have  acted  illegitimately.1 

The  exact  figures  for  England  and  Wales  -  during  the 
past  five  and  a  half  years  are  as  follows: 


Illegitimate 

Year 

Total  Births 

Legitimate 

Illegitimate 

Percentage 
Total 

1913  

881,890 

843,981 

37,909 

4.29 

1914  

879,096 

841,767 

37,329 

4.24 

1915  

814,614 

778,369 

36,245 

4.44 

1916  

785,520 

7-17,831 

37,689 

4.79 

1917  

668,346 

631,336 

37,010 

5.54 

19183   .  . 

332.547 

312,587 

19,960 

6.0 

It  should  be  noted  that  in  England  still-born  births 
are  not  registered;  were  these  recorded  the  illegitimate 
birth-rate  would  be  much  higher  than  the  present  statis- 
tics show.  In  those  countries  where  the  records  arc  kept 
the  number  of  still-born  illegitimate  births  is  always  very 
high,  sometimes  twice  as  high — as  it  is  for  children  born 
under  the  protection  of  marriage. 

1  The  word  illegitimacy  is  derived  from  the  I/atin  \llffjitimw, 
meaning  "not  in  aeeordanee  with  law." 

2  The   bastardy   laws   in   Scotland   and    Ireland    are  different 
from  the  Knplish  laws,  and  therefore  the  figures  for  these  coun- 
tries are  not  given. 

3  First  half-year. 

235 


236       WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

2.  Deaths. 

An  unusually  high  infant  mortality  is  found  every- 
where among  illegitimate  children.  In  general,  the  ille- 
gitimate rate  is  twice  as  great  as  the  legitimate.  Two 
unprotected  children  die  for  each  protected  child. 

1912-1916  DEATHS  PER  1,000  UNDER  1  YEAR. 


All  infants 
under  1  year. 

Legitimate. 

Illegitimate. 

1912 

95 

91 

121 

1913 

106 

104 

213 

1914 

105 

100 

207 

1915* 

190 

105 

203 

1916 

91 

87 

183 

The  mortality  of  unmarried  mothers  is  proportionately 
great. 

"The  ratio  of  illegitima;te  to  legitimate  mortality  in 
the  first  week  of  life  has  increased  from  170  per  cent,  in 
1907  to  201  per  cent,  in  1916.  These  facts  have  a  some- 
what ominous  aspect  and  suggest  that  infant  welfare 
organizations  might  well  devote  special  attention  to  the 
first  days  of  the  life  of  illegitimate  children." — (Report 
of  the  Registrar-General  for  1916.) 

The  Law  of  Affiliation  and  Bastardy.  (Brief  Sum- 
mary of  the  Law  in  England  and  Wales.) 
The  mother  is  the  legal  parent.  The  child  is  not  legit- 
imized on  the  marriage  of  its  parents.  The  child  has 
no  rights  of  inheritance  from  either  parent.  Where 
paternity  is  established  the  father  is  liable  for  support 
(or  alimony).  In  Scotland  the  marriage  of  the  mother 
with  the  father  legitimizes  the  child.  In  Ireland  the 
mother  is  not  allowed  to  claim  alimony  herself — she  must 
go  into  the  workhouse  and  the  guardians  must  sue  for 
her. 


APPENDIX  237 

To  Obtain  an  Affiliation  Order. 

By  the  Bastardy  Laws  Amendment  Act,  1872,  the 
mother  must  apply  to  a  justice  of  the  peace  for  a  sum- 
mons to  be  served  on  the  man  alleged  by  her  to  be  the 
father  of  her  child.  The  cost  of  this  summons  is  3/6 
with  an  additional  2/-  for  delivery  if  beyond  the  limits 
of  a  city  borough.  The  cost  of  the  affiliation  order,  when 
obtained,  is  9/-.  The  application  for  the  order  may  be 
made  before  the  birth  of  the  child  or  within  twelve 
months  after  the  birth.  It  cannot  be  done  after  that 
time  unless  (1)  the  man  has  acknowledged  his  paternity 
by  paying  money  for  the  child,  (2)  the  alleged  father  has 
left  England,  in  which  case  a  summons  can  be  served  any 
time  within  12  months  after  his  return. 

The  Affiliation  Order. 

The  maximum  amount  that  up  to  the  present  time  has 
been  allowed  under  an  Affiliation  Order  is  5/-  a  week, 
such  payments  to  continue  until  the  child  reaches  the  age 
of  sixteen  years.  The  justices  determine  the  exact 
amount  the  father  shall  pay.  It  also  rests  entirely 
within  their  discretion  to  make  any  allowance  for  the 
mother's  expenses  at  the  time  of  birth.  In  fixing  the 
sum  the  justices  are  supposed  to  act  having  regard  to  all 
the  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  often  the  payments 
were  fixed  as  low  as  2/6  or  3/6  per  week  before  the 
passing  of  New  Act  1919. 

The  Affiliation  Orders  Act,  1914. 

By  the  Affiliation  Orders  Act,  1914,  two  important 
changes  in  the  law  were  gained.  The  appointment  of 
an  officer,  known  as  the  collecting  officer,  took  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  mother  the  work  of  collecting  the  weekly 
payments  granted  under  the  maintenance  order,  while 
new  powers  were  given  of  enforcing  payment  from  a  de- 
faulting father.  Further,  the  compulsory  interval  of  six 
days  (a  period  which  gave  the  man  opportunity  to  es- 


238        WOMEN'S  WILD  OATS 

cape)  between  the  summons  and  the  appearance  in  court 
of  the  putative  father  was  abolished. 

The  New  Act. 

The  inadequacy  of  such  sums  with  which  to  bring  up  a 
child  has  at  last  led  to  action,  and  the  maximum  of  5/- 
a  week  has  been  done  away  with.  The  maximum  pay- 
ment in  the  future  will  be  10/-  a  week.  This  Act  (which 
is  called  the  Affiliation  Orders  Increase  of  Maximum 
Payment  Act,  1918)  came  into  operation  on  January  1st, 
1919. 

Provisions  Affecting  Soldiers  and  Sailors. 

If  a  soldier  is  alleged  to  be  the  father  of  the  child, 
action  must  be  taken  while  he  is  in  England  or  Wales. 
In  Scotland  and  Ireland  the  bastardy  laws  are  different, 
and  if  he  is  abroad  or  under  orders  to  go  abroad  action 
cannot  be  taken.  The  summons  should  be  served  on  his 
commanding  officer,  with  a  sufficient  payment  to  cover 
his  journey  to  and  from  the  court  where  his  case  is  to  be 
heard.  Before  the  war  the  alimony  granted  to  the 
mother  for  a  child  by  a  soldier  was  even  less  than  in  or- 
dinary cases;  this  injustice  has,  however,  been  ended 
and  the  allowance  now  granted  for  an  illegitimate  child 
is  6/8  per  week. 


University  of  California 

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405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

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JUN121998 


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